LOUGH CORRIB,
ITS SHORES AND ISLANDS :
WITH NOTICES OF
LOUGH MASK.
BY
SIR WILLIAM R. WILDE, M.D.,
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY;
AUTHOR OF
"THE BEAUTIES OF THE BOYXE,"
"CATALOGUE OF THE MUSEUM OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY;
ETC. ETC.
Illustrate faith numerous <$loo0 (Engrabittgs.
SECOND EDITION.
DTJBLIX:
M C GLASHA]N & GILL, 50, UPPER SACKVILLE-STREET.
LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1872.
DUBLIN :
^rtnteB at tije ©m&ewltiJ $ress,
BY M. H. GILL.
WW
PREFACE.
Well acquainted in days gone by with the Shores and
Islands of Lough Corrib and Lough Mask, I ,was not
a little surprised, when returning there a few years ago,
to find that, notwithstanding its perfect accessibility,
this interesting district was comparatively unknown
to tourists, and the true character and history of its
monuments were neither appreciated nor understood
by its inhabitants.
In the hope of removing, in part at least, some of
those deficiencies, and as a pleasing occupation during
leisure hours, I have written this book, for several of
the illustrations in which my readers are indebted to
the liberality of the late Sir Benjamin L. Guinness, Bart,,
to whom, and to the various other friends in the AVest,
2921
iv PREFACE.
of all classes, who have promptly afforded such informa-
tion and assistance as I required, I beg to return my
best thanks.
I had intended appending some notes on the
zoology and popular legends, &c., of the district ;
but subjects of so much more general and popular
interest have crowded upon me since the publication
of the first edition, that I am again compelled to
apologise for the Appendix, the subject matter of
which I hope to bring out on a future occasion.
1, Merrion-Square, Dublin,
January 1, 1872.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.— Introductory.
Page,
Character of* the Scenery of the West. Objects of the Tour, and special
Subjects of Interest. .Route from Dublin to Gal way. An Hour's
Ramble through "The City of the Tribes." Its Celebrities, Name, and
History. The River Gallieve, and Lady Gallvea. Plan of the Ex-
cursion. Hotels and Conveyances, , 1
CHAPTER II. — Description op Lough Corrib.
Lough Corrib : its Direction, Name, Extent ; Ancient Territories adjoin-
ing ; Sources, Rivers, Turloughs ; Division ; Knockmagh ; Scenery and
Mountains surrounding Lake ; Geology, Mines, Natural "Woods ; Drain-
age ; Navigation, the Eglinton Canal ; Outlets, the Friars' Cut, ... IS
CHAPTER III; — Galtvay to Annaghdotvx.
Parish of St. Nicholas. Terrilan Castle. Annals of Gal way. The De
Burgos. Menlough. Parish of Oranmore. The Lower Lake. Clare-
Galway Parish, Castle, and Convent Church. Ancient Ploughs. Knock-
natuath ; the Battle of the Chieftains ; the Irish against the Irish ;
the Book of Howth ; the Engagement, and the Rout. Cregg Castle;
Athcloiggeen ; the Hag's Castle, 39
CHAPTER IV. — Annaghdown to Kylebeg.
Annaghdown Parish, and Ancient Bishopric ; St. Brendan. The Desmond
and O'Donnell Costume. The Monastery and Abbey. Ancient Tombs.
The Nunnery. Window of Modern Church. The Cloichtheach of
VI CONTENTS.
Page.
Annaghdown. The Castle and Holy Wells. Castle Creevy. Kilcoona
Parish ; Church, and Round Tower. History and Writings of St. Coona.
Parish of Killeany. Cloch-an-Uaibher Castle. Lee's Island. Knock
Ferry and Kylebeg, 63
CHAPTER V. — Kylebeg to Inchiqtjin.
Cargin Parish. Church and Castle. Killeens. Iniscreawa. Annals of
Lough Corrib. Irish Pagan and Christian Architecture. Cahergal.
Clydagh. Killursa Parish. History of St. Fursa. Inchiquin. Castle
of Annakeen. Cairns. Giants' Graves. Church of St. Fursa. Early
Irish Church Architecture. Ross-Errilly. The Locust Plague. Moyne
Castle. The Black River, S7
CHAPTER VI. — Inchiquin to Inchangoill and Cong.
County of Mayo. The Islands of Lough Corrib. Inishanboe. Parish of
Shrule. Ballycurrin, Ballisahiney, and Moceara Castles. Forts. Pa-
rish of Cong. Inchangoill. St. Patrick's and the Saint's Churches.
Stone of Lugnaedon. South-east border of Cong Parish. Castletown.
Inchruicatreer. Cross. Ancient Churches of Kilfraughaun and Killar-
sagh. Moytura. Lackafinna. Lisloughry. Cong Islands. Kinlough.
Ashford. Strand Hill. Cong, 128
CHAPTER VII.— Cong.
Cong Village. Rivers. Annals. St. Fechin. The Abbey, and its History.
The O'Duffys. Ireland's last Monarch. Ashford. The Street Cross.
The Irish Language. Reliques ; the True Cross ; the Tooth of St. Pa-
trick. The Black Bell. Wayside Monuments. The Castle of Augha-
lard. Caves. The Pigeon Hole, 161
CHAPTER VIII. — The Battle and Battle-field of Moytura.
The Primitive Irishman. Fomorians. Partholan. Nemeth. The Firbolgs.
Tuatha de Danaan. The Plain of Moytura. Knockma. Ceasair. Kings
Eochy and Nuadh. The Battle-field. The Warriors, Druids, and Phy-
sicians. Existiug Monuments ; Cairns, Caves, Cahers, Stone Circles, and
CONTENTS. Vll
l'age.
Pillars. The Four Days' Fight. The Meane Uisge. Sepulchral Urn.
Standing Stones at Inishowen. The Dagda and the Fathach. Nymphs-
field Monuments. Caher Mac Turc. Belor of the Magic Eye. The
Neale Monuments. The Hill of Cam. Caher Eobert. History of the
Moytura Manuscript, 210
CHAPTER IX.— Lough Mask.
Parish of Ballinchalla. Lough Mask Castle. Edmond de Burgo. Inish-
main. Eogan-Beil and St. Cormac. Inishmain Abbey. Ancient Fort.
The Penitentiary. Inishowen. The Hag's Castle. Boss Hill. St. Pa-
trick's Church. Upper Lough Corrib. Doon and Castle Kirk. St. Fe-
chen's and St. Enna's Wells. Caislean na Kirka. Maam, 249
CHAPTEB X.— Maam to Galway.
Parish of Kilcummin. Oughterard. Lemonfield. Gnomore and Gnobeg.
Killeroon Church. Aughnanure Castle. Killannin Parish. Lough Na-
neevin. Kilbrecan. Boss Lake, Castle, and Churches. The Fossil
"Wood. Teampul-beg-na-Neave. Moycullen Parish, and its Churches.
The Battle Stone. Danesfield. Bahoon Parish. Conclusion, . . . 278
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
No. Name. Dra'wn by.
1 Terrilan Castle, Wakeman,
2. Menlough Castle, ,,
3. Clare-Galway Abbey, .... ,,
4. ,, „ Ploughs, .... Rogers, .
5. Tollokyan Castle, Wakeman,
6. Annaghdown Ruins, ,,
7 „ Tomb, „
8 „ Church Window, . Photograph,
9. „ Window Ornament, Wakeman,
10. ,, Castle, .... ,,
11. Kileoona Round Tower. . . . Photograph,
12. Cargin Castle, Miss E. L. Staunton,
13. Inniscreawa, ,.
14. Cahergal Fort, Wakeman,
15. „ Steps, „
16. Clydagl Photograph.
17. Annakcen Castle, ,,
18. Ross-Knilly Wakeman,
10. D'Arcy's Cottage, Photograph,
20. Ballycurrin Castle ». "W ikeman,
21. Inchangoill, Lugnaedon's Stone,
„ Inscription, ... „
Engraved by.
Page.
Oldham, . .
40
55
. 45
55
52
Shepherd,
. 53
55 •
62
Oldham, . .
67
55
69
55
72
,5 •
73
55
75
55
79
55
88
» *
89
•
95
•' • •
96
•
97
.,
100
55
112
*
130
.. . .
131
Shepherd,
136
Oldham, . .
136
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
IX
No.
Name.
Drawn by.
Engraved by.
Page.
23.
Inchangoill, St. Patrick's Church, Photograph, . Oldham, . .
. 142
24.
„ Saints' Church, . . "Wakeman,
,,
. 143
25.
„ Bearded Capitals,
11
,,
145
26.
,, Choir Arch, . .
. Photograph,
ii
146
27.
„ Greek Cross,
. "Wakeman,
ii
. 147
28.
Cross Castle and Church,
»>
,,
153
29.
East "Window of do.,
>>
ii
154
30.
Kilfraughaun Doorway,
• >i
„
155
31.
Killarsagh "Window,
i>
ii
157
32.
Moytura House, . . .
n
.,
158
33.
Cong River, and Ashford,
>i
,,
160
34.
,, The Bullaun Stone,
n
,, .
164
35.
„ Abbey, ....
S. Lover,
ii
170
36.
,, Terminal Cross, .
"Wakeman,
,, .
175
37.
„ 0' Duffy's Cross, . .
)7
Shepherd, . .
176
38.
,, Inscription on do.,
'5
,,
176
39.
Moytura Cross, . . .
11
,, .
178
40.
Facade of Cong Abbey, .
11
Oldham, . .
179
41.
Ashford House, . . .
11
ii . . .
182
42.
Market Cross of Cong, .
11
Shepherd,
185
43.
The True Cross, . . .
Du Noyer, .
Hanlon, . .
193
44.
Inscription on do., . .
"Wakeman,
Oldham, . .
194
45.
The Black Bell, . . .
ii •
A. Oldham, .
197
46.
"Wayside Monuments, . .
Fairholt, . .
Electrotype, .
198
47.
Aughalard Castle, . . .
"Wakeman, .
Shepherd,
199
48.
Plan of Kildun Cave,
M'Donagh, .
A. Oldham, .
205
49.
,, Cooslogha Cave,
>>
>>
206
53.
Cooslogha Cave, interior,
"Wakeman, .
Shepherd, . .
207
51.
Cairn of the Hurlers,
>»
ii
219
52.
,, of First Day's Battle,
>)
ii
222
53.
The One Man's Cairn, . .
»
Oldham, . .
224
b
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
No. Name. Drawn by.
54. Sepulchral Urn, . . . ' . . . "Wakeman,
55. The Flagstones of Caelchu, . . ,,
56. Caher-Speenaun, „
57. Nymphsfield Circle, W. Wilde,
58. ,, „ Wakeman,
59. Long Stone of The Neale, ... ,,
60. Neale Inscription, Rubbing, .
61. Eochy's Cairn, Wakeman,
62. Lough Mask Castle, .... Rubbing, .
63. Inishmain, Doorway in, . . . Wakeman,
64. „ Abbey, „
65. ,, Capital of Pillar, . . ,,
66. King Beil's Fort, „
67. The Penitentiary, ,,
68. ,, Interior, . . Rogers, .
69. The Hag's Castle, W. Wilde,
70. Dun Aengus, . \ . . . . . . Cheyne, .
71. The Hen's Castle, Wakeman,
72. Lemonfield, ,,
73. Aughnanure Castle, ,,
74. „ Window, .... ,,
75. St. Annin's Church, R. Willis,
76. The Fossil Yew, Kinahan, .
Engraved by.
Page.
Mrs. Millard
. 225
Shepherd,
. 228
Oldham, .
. 230
Shepherd,
. 234
>>
. 237
Oldham, .
. 240
55
. 241
»>
. 243
Shepherd,
. 250
Miss Keely,
. 254
Oldham, .
. 255
Shepherd,
. 256
5J
. 257
J3
. 258
Oldham, . .
. 259
Shepherd,
. 261
Oldham, .
. . 265
>)
. 271
Shepherd,
. 282
Oldham, .
. . 288
Shepherd,
. . 290
Oldham, .
. 296
j>
. . 299
LOUGH CORRIB.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
CHARACTER OF THE SCENERY OF THE WEST. OBJECTS OF THE TOUR, AND
SPECIAL SUBJECTS OF INTEREST. ROUTE FROM DUBLIN TO GALWAY. AN
HOUR'S RAMBLE THROUGH " THE CITY OF THE TRIBES." ITS CELEBRI-
TIES, NAME, AND HISTORY. THE RIVER GALLIEYE, AND LADY GALLYEA.
PLAN OF THE EXCURSION. HOTELS AND CONVEYANCES.
Westward, ho ! Let us rise with the sun, and be off to the
land of the West — to the lakes and streams — the grassy-
glens and fern-clad gorges — the bluff hills and rugged moun-
tains — now cloud-capped, then revealed in azure, or bronzed
by evening's tints, as the light of day sinks into the bold
swell of the Atlantic, and leaves his reflection in long level
streaks of crimson, green, and orange, among the greyish-
purple robe of twilight, when the shadows of the headlands
sink deep into the placid wateis of the lake. But, whether
seen in sunshine or in shade — curtained by the mist, or
B
2 THE SCENERY OF THE WEST.
with the bright light of morning playing upon the brown
scores and landslips on the mountain side, or when the
streamlets form threads of molten silver as they gleam through
the purple heather and the yellow-lichened rocks ere they
leap into the lake — the land we invite you to is ever beau-
tiful in outline, and graceful in form ; and as the warm
breezes, carried on to us with the great Gulf stream, steal
in among the West Connaught, Joyce Country, and Conna-
mara ranges — the Jura and the Alps of Ireland — and give
fitful atmospheric changes to the colouring of the landscape,
from bright early dawn to sombre eve, scenes of beauty and
sublimity are presented that leave us nothing to envy, even
in the everlasting snowtops with their vine-clad slopes and
dark pine-robed sides, the mighty glaciers, the rushing ava-
lanches, nor the deep ultramarine skies of other lands.
Let us then be off to the Far-West, to which (with a
choice for a warmer region) the inhabitants of other portions
of this island were transplanted some centuries ago ; — to the
ancient home of the aborigines — the land of the Firbolgs,
the Tuatha de Danann, and the Milesians — the last resting-
place of the Celt, ere, fulfilling the destiny of his race, and
the earliest impulses of mankind, he has followed from the
cradle of humanity the declining sun. Here we can view
the battlefields and civic vestiges of our Pagan ancestors,
crowded with caves and cairns, raths, tumuli, monoliths, and
stone circles, memorials of one of the earliest human occu-
OBJECTS OF THE TOUR. 3
pancies in North-western Europe ; or investigate the small
primitive churches that mark the footprints where the early
Christian Missionary replaced the Druid Priest; or linger by
the thorn-shaded holy wells, or admire the noble abbeys
and extensive monasteries of the learned and artistic Fran-
ciscans and Augustinians.
Let us first take a peep at the " City of the Tribes," of
the Blakes, Bodkins, and Browns, Ffonts, Martins, Morrisses,
Lynches, D'Arcys, Athys, Frenchs, Joyces, Kirwans, and
Skerretts, &c, and then launch on the blue, island-studded
waters of Lough Corrib, where, traversing its breadth in a
trim and commodious steamer, or gliding into its glassy bays
in a rowboat, we can enjoy some of the most picturesque
scenery in the land, explore the natural curiosities, and
speculate upon the influences and actions which, in remote
times, produced these fantastic forms and disruptured chasms
that present at the western termination of our great lime-
stone formation ; — or examine the architecture of the old
feudal castles and ecclesiastical buildings along its peace-
ful shores. Our object is rather to interest the reader and
the tourist in the history, antiquities, and scenery of this
portion of the West, than amuse him with tales respecting
pigs, pipers, praties, or potheen ; fools or fiddlers ; bailiffs,
bullocks, or buckeens ; graziers, gaugers, or ganders ; way-
side waiters, with their dry jokes for the "gintlemen," or
wandering dancing masters, and poetasters, once so common
b2
WHAT TO A VOl J).
in the West. We do not claim your sympathy for face-
tious car drivers, cunning codgers, or knowing gossoons ;
nor present to you miserably clad spalpeens, ragged urchins,
wretched peat hovels, importunate beggars, lying guides,
oppressed tenantry, griping landlords, or tyrannical agents.
We have nothing to say about priests or patterns ; politics,
peelers, or parsons ; soldiers, soupers, or sauggarths ; Young-
Irelanders or old ones ; Fenians or Repealers. There is still
plenty of fun, frolic, and folk-lore in the West; but, for the
present, we have no stories to relate about friars or fairies ;
and we have no opinion to obtrude upon you respecting
tithes or tenant-right ; High Church or Low Church ; Ultra-
montanism or Muscular Christianity ; we have no official ad-
vertisements nor railway puffings, with which to enrich our
pages or our publisher ; nor can we stop to repeat Syphie
Burke's "Costello Shentlemen," or gossip among the "Rakes
of Galway" about —
" The herrings and the haikes,
And the Bodkins and the Blakes."
We may look at the turnips, and taste the murphies ;
but we promise not to remind you of the fearful scenes of
the famine,* or anticipate the ravages of a Rinderpest. We
* See the Author's "Irish Popular Superstitions," Dublin, 1849; and
the Treatise on the Famine of 1847, in the Irish Census Commissioners'
Report for 1851, vol. v., part ii.
THE START. O
have no desire to introduce imaginary conversations in bro-
ken English, to amuse our Saxon friends at what is styled
"the vulgarity of the lower order of Irish." We wish to
take you, as intelligent tourists, with eyes to see and hearts
to admire the beauties of nature ; where the stately ruin or
the cultured demesne blends harmoniously with the graceful
outline of the surrounding landscape ; where your architec-
tural or antiquarian tastes may be gratified ; your historic
knowledge increased by the legend or the annal; your scien-
tific inquiries into the geological structure and biological
productions of the country obtain a wide scope ; and the
hitherto neglected resources of a portion of our island may
be glanced at if not profoundly studied ; and we hope to
bring you back from your pleasant and cheap excursion on
Lough Corrib in good health and spirits, pleased with the
scenery and the inhabitants of the West, satisfied with our
guidance, and better acquainted with an, as yet, undescribed
district than you have been heretofore by flying visits to
this portion of the Emerald Isle.
Leaving the Broadstone Terminus of the Midland Great
Western Eailway by the 8.30 A. m. train for Gal way, and
running for a great portion of our way along the Eoyal
Canal, through which we were formerly dragged at the rate
of four miles an hour to Alma Mater by a pair of gerrauns,
we traverse the uninterrupted plain that extends across the
island from East to West, for 126 miles, from the Channel
6 DUBLIN TO GALWAY.
to the Atlantic. Glancing at O'Connell's round-tower monu-
ment as we start ; getting glimpses of ancient raths, bar-
rows, churches, and some of the ruined castles of the Pale,
as we proceed, we obtain views of the Dublin and Wicklow
Mountains on our left; and, passing rapidly over the valley
of the Rye- water, where, leaving Carton Demesne, it courses
to the LifFey, we proceed onwards to Maynooth, where the
noble keep of the ancient castle of the Fitzgeralds contrasts
with the formal modern buildings of the College of St. Pa-
trick, where the parochial Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland
are chiefly educated. We rush by the mud hovels of Kil-
cock, in the county of Kildare ; over portions of the great
Boo- of Allen, with its thousands of unreclaimed acres, ten-
anted by grouse and hares ; and pass within view of Clo-
nard, the ancient seminary, whither, even in the time of
Alfred, our Saxon neighbours came in hundreds to be in-
structed. On with us over the Boyne Water, with greater
speed and safety than it was crossed in 1690; through the
fat lands of Westmeath, over the Brusna, into Mullingai ;
beside the clear trout-full waters of Lough Ennel (now
styled Belvidere), and beyond it catch a distant view of the
famed Hill of Ushnach, second only to Tara and Emania in
importance in early Irish history ; margining the site of
the rath and crannoge of Moate — glancing at sections of the
great esker that stretches from east to west, and formed the
ancient boundary between the north and south portions of
ATHLONE AND ATHENRY. 7
the kingdom — we speed onwards to the noble Shannon, the
fords and toghers of which were so often invaded and de-
fended by the Lagenians and Connacians ; and here, over
the splendid iron railway bridge, enter Connaught. Onwards
still we pass, under the batteries of Athlone (Ath Luin,
"the Ford of Luin"), which Ginkell wrested from St. Ruth
in 1691 ; — along the intersecting stone walls and patches of
russet bog through the county of Roscommon ; across the
deep sullen waters of the Suck, winding through the low
callows and green inches of Ballinasloe, the seat of the
Clancartys, and the site of the greatest stock fair in Eu-
rope* — forwards through the county of Galway, by the
lovely Abbey of Kilconnell — passing Woodlawn, the resi-
dence of Lord Ashtown ; then to Athenry, the city of "the
ford of the king," crowded with ancient remains, civil, mili-
tary, ecclesiastical, and domestic. Coursing now along the
northern margin of the great plain, once the hunting ground
of Queen Meave, that sweeps the lower edge of the Burren
hills, and on which stand the towns of Gort and Loughrea,
and the round towers of Ardrahan and Kilmacduagh, we
* Ballinasloe — in Irish, Beal-ath-na- Sluaigead, "the mouth of the
ford of the hosts," which shows that it was a place of meeting, and pro-
bably of barter, like that at Telltown, in Meath, in early times. The
oldest name of the place was, however, Dun Leodha, or Dunlo, from
its dun, or fort, which formerly stood over the Suck, but was removed
in 1838, when the Roman Catholic chapel was built on its site. The
Earl of Clancarty's eldest son takes his title from this name.
8 x OONNAUGHT AND THE ATLANTIC.
rush by Derrydonnell Castle, and soon feel the western
breezes playing upon us from Galway Bay, as it indents the
shores and laves the walls of the old castle of Oranmore ; we
cross the great level, studded with the feudal halls of the
De Burgos, and get a foretaste of the Petrasa, upon which
our pilgrimage in search of the picturesque and beautiful is
about to commence. But the sterility in the foreground is
relieved by a view of the blue hills of Clare, and occasion-
ally in clear weather with glimpses of the distant Isles
of Aran, that sentinel the magnificent bay of Galway, and
break the swell of the mighty waves of the Atlantic. We
must keep a sharp look out to the south-west to see " the
round tower of other days," standing by the lone sea shore,
and cutting tall and dark against the leaden sky that is
now obscuring the outline of Black Head on the distant
side of Lough Lurgan,* catching a view of Mutton Island
and its light-house, beside which we could recently admire
those great leviathans of the deep that brought us in six
days to American land — but by which, alas ! we lost our
cash, the Government its subsidy, and the London directory
some of its credit. * * * * Well, while we "mourn the
* Lough Lurgan is the ancient Irish name for the bay of Galway.
The Round Tower of lloscain, alluded to above, stands on the Mur-
rough, in the parish of Oranmore, and is about four miles from Galway ;
and with those of Kilmacduagh, Meelick, Aran, Kilbannon, Inishcaltra,
Killeoona, and Ardrahan, forms the eighth of those remarkable struc-
tures in that county.
THE CITY OF THE TRIBES. 9
hopes that leave us," we still expect to see that good time
come, when, with capital and common prudence, the great
natural and geographical advantages of the nearest seaport
in the old world at which to launch us for the new will be
appreciated. Swiftly we glide over the salt water estuary
of Lough Athafia, into the great terminus of Galway, at
1.45 o'clock, and out through it into the enormous lime-
stone hotel, built, "regardless of expense," by the original
directors of the railway; and from whence, after a "bit and
a sup," we emerge among the beggars into Eyre-square,
surrounded by hotels, club-houses, banks, private residences,
and coach offices, whence the great " Bian" can forward us
to u anywhere," and in which we can choose our news-
paper according to our politics or polemics. Down let us
pass through William-street, to look at the old mansion of
Geoffrey Lynch, the " Spanish Parade," and on by the
house where the skull and crossbones commemorate the
scene of the " Warden of Galway;" among the turf-kishes,
and potatoe baskets, and the carts of sea wrack — along
through handsome groups of blue-eyed, black-haired, bare-
footed colleens, with their graceful carriage, red petticoats,
and blue and scarlet cloaks — down to the Fishmarket gate,
erected to defend the peaceful burgesses against the " Fe-
rocious O'Flahertys," where we may see the Aran fisher-
man, in his knee-breeches and loampootas, bargaining with
the silver-haired Claddagh crone, whose shrimps are jumping
10 f; VI AN AY CELEBRITIES.
out of her apron ; where the cockles are smacking their lips
with the heat, the johndories are alive, and the lobsters are
playing pitch and toss with the crabs ; till we reach the
bridge, in the bright stream beneath which —
"The trout and salmon
Pla) r ed backgammon,"
long before Dick MiHikin immortalized that feat in song, or
the gifted Father Prout heard "The Bells of Shandon," or
wandered by the banks of " Sweet Castlehyde."
Give a look at the Queen's College, and the Eglinton
Canal ; carry your eye along the bright gleam, where the
waters of the lake in one unbroken line pour over the
weir, and arrange for a few days' fishing with Mr. Miller
on your return. Do not stop to see which of the six sal-
mon now hooked will be killed first, but get round to the
Wood-quay, for there goes the steamer's first bell at ^ to
3 o'clock.
Now, that we are on the quarter deck, and have made
the acquaintance of Ellis, the polite and intelligent Captain
of the " Eglinton," and arranged with that most attentive
and careful of clerks, Mr. O'Hara, let us, while the steam is
getting up, have a short chat about Galway, the Metropolis
of the West, a corporate town, a Bishop's see — the last lo-
cality of a " Warden" in Ireland — the birthplace, or the
early home or school residence of Kirwan the chemist, and
Kirwan the orator; of Duald Mac Firbis, the genealogist and
PRIDE, POVERTY, AJSD DEVOTION. 11
antiquary ; of Roger O'Flaherty* and James Hardiman, the
historians ; and of Father Peter, who was for so long a
period " the man for Gal way." It contained in early days
the chief establishments of the Dominican, Franciscan, Ca-
puchin, Augustinian, Jesuit, and Carmelite Orders in Con-
naught, and was at one period the principal trading and
commercial city in this portion of the United Kingdom, and
in that respect considered second only to London and
Dublin. It was formerly renowned for its foreign trade, and
celebrated for the hospitality of its merchants ; but, while
the latter remains unimpaired, the former is, alas ! at a low
ebb ; and, with immense natural capabilities and vast re-
sources, the Metropolis of Connaught, and the great western
seaport of Europe, with a population of 16,967 persons in
1861, although it still manufactures whiskey, flour, and pa-
per ; beer, brushes, and boats ; besides the ordinary neces-
saries of daily life, lacks the energy or means of raising
* Roderick O'Flaherty, descended from the Chieftains of the "West,
and to whom reference is here made as connected with this locality,
was one of the most learned Irishmen of the day : his principal works
are the " Ogygia or Chronology of Irish Events," written in 1G65, and
his " Chorographical Description of AVest or H-Iar Connaught," the MS.
of which, written in 1684, was printed by the Irish Archaeological So-
ciety in 1846, and carefully edited and annotated by the late James
Hardiman, the only commentator at the period capable of doing justice
to the great historian of the West. O'Flaherty died in indigence at
Park, near Galway, at a very advanced age, in 1717.
12 THE LADY GALLVEA.
itself from the applicability of the old adage of "pride,
poverty, and devotion."
The name of Galway has given rise to several philolo-
gical speculations ; but it is plainly derived from that of
Gailleamh, the daughter of Breasil, the prosperous King of
the Firbolgs, who, it is said, having —
" Bathed in the full cool stream,
The bright branch was drowned ;"
and whose monument stood on the river's bank at the time
the original of this ancient Irish distich was written in the
Dinn Seanchus, a MS. of great antiquity, still in existence.
The rock at which she was drowned is marked on the wes-
tern bank of the river in the celebrated Map of Galway,
made in 1651, when the Lord Deputy Clanricarde pledged
the City of the Tribes to the Duke of Lorraine ; and is thus
referred to on the margin of that remarkable document : —
"The rock where the woman Galvea is said to have been
drowned, from which the city of Galway was named." Har-
diman in his notes to O'Flaherty's " West Connaught," says,
" Here it is intended by some of the spirited inhabitants of
the town to restore that remarkable monument, by erecting
a column on the spot, with the above inscription, in order
to distinguish the place from which so large a portion of
that part of Ireland has been named." And now that the
Crimean guns, which were pointed against the Railway
Hotel in Eyre-square, have been removed from the grasp of
CAHIR GALLIEVE. 13
the " Irish Republic virtually established," we really think
some of the public spirit alluded to by our deceased friend
might find vent for itself in commemoration of the lady who
left her name to the locality, and give at least one statue
to the Metropolis of Connaught.*
In ancient Irish writings the city of Galway is styled
Dun Gaillve, the Doon or fortified place at the mouth of
the River Gaillve ; and in the modern vernacular it is always
called Cahir Gallieve.
It is related that the river of Galway was dry on se-
veral occasions, both in summer and winter ; so much so,
that articles dropt therein centuries before were then disco-
vered, as in A. D. 1178, in 1190, in 1647, and in 1683, &cf
* With the exception of the white marble statue of "William III.,
formerly standing on the bridge of Boyle, where in olden days we saw
it dressed in " Orange and Blue," even after its head had been cut off,
and thrown into the river, and which is now preserved in the public
grounds of that famed locality, there is no public statue in the province
of Connaught !
f Mr. Kinahan, of the Geological Survey, has very ingeniously en-
deavoured to account for these droughts, by supposing that the water
of the Galway river had suddenly found its way through some of the
old subterranean passages, one of which exists at Castlegar, leading
across into Lough Athalia. These outlets, previously choked up with
sand, became clear at very low tides. See the " Geological Magazine"
for November, 1866, for his Paper " On the formation of the Rock
Basin of Lough Corrib. " " The passage to the Castlegar outlet was
closed about fifteen years ago by the Board of Works, to facilitate the
navigation of the Lough." It had previously been closed by the Lough
Corrib Navigation Company — see note, page 32.
14 GALWAY DIOCESE.
The present arms of Galway are an antique galley, bear-
ing a shield with a lion rampant at the masthead, and hav-
ing this motto, " Laudatio ejus manet in seculum seculi."
The Wardenship of Galway, last held by the Rev. James
Daly, of the Dunsandle family, was done away with in
1840, and the title of city reduced to that of town. It is
in the Protestant diocese of Tuam, which includes the
whole region of South-west Connaught; but the town and
parishes of St. Nicholas and Kahoon form a special Roman
Catholic diocese, and the jurisdiction of its present Bishop,
Dr. Mac Evilly, has lately been increased by his accession
to the administration of the ancient sees of Kilmacdua^h
and Kilfenora.
Now, that the reader is about to launch on Lough Cor-
rib — whether as a peruser of this work in Belgravia or
Merrion-square, or absolutely on board the Eglinton, it mat-
ters little — we will develope our plan. Generally speak-
ing, our survey will be littoral and parochial; beginning on
the east, traversing the north, and pursuing our route in
the most convenient manner round the north and west
shores of the lake, but occasionally, when objects of interest
connected with the locality present, diverging a short dis-
tance inland.
The road from Galway to Cong, through Clare-Gal way.
by Annaghdown, Headford, and Cross, &c, is a fair day's
journey of about thirty miles, and will enable the anti-
OUR ROUTE. 15
quarian tourist to visit everything of note on that side of
the lake, either going or coming. Arrived at Cong by
road or lake, and taking up his quarters there for a couple
of days, the objects of interest surrounding that locality, as
well as the eastern shores of Lough Mask and the plain of
Moytura, may be investigated ; and the island of Inchingoil
can be visited within the space of an hour by a rowboat.
Pedestrians will be amply rewarded by a walk over the
hills from Cong to Maam, and ladies can have conveyances
for the same purpose; or, what is preferable in calm weather,
a boat may be obtained at Cong to visit the upper lake,
and proceed by Doon and the Hen's Castle to Maam Hotel,
a distance of about twelve miles by land, and thirteen or
fourteen by water.
During summer, excursions are frequently made by the
steamer from Galway to Oughterard, and thence by the
south of Inchingoil through the upper lake to Castlekirk,
and as far as the Hen's Castle.
From Maam a road four miles long, proceeding nearly
due south, and commanding scenes of great beauty, takes
us to the highroad leading from Clifden, by Baliinahinch
and Oughterard, to Galway, on which public cars ply twice
daily. Thus the shores of the lake may be circumambulated
with facility.
Tourists pressed for time, or not much interested in
archaeological investigations, but anxious to obtain a o*ene-
16 ITINERARY.
ral view of the extreme western limit of the British Isles in
the shortest possible space of time, can leave London by
the night mail, and at a very trifling expense, and with
little wear and tear, reach Galway at 1.45 P.M., next day ;
and dine at Cong at 6.30 ; or, if determined on a rush,
take a seat on Bianconi's long car, and, passing through
some of the wildest portion of Connamara, sleep at Clifden,
proceed next day by public or private conveyance, by
Kylemore and Leenane, and, leaving the Westport road at
the head of the Killeries, pass down through the lovely
valley of Maam to Lough Corrib ; and there either take
boat or car for Cong ; and, returning by the steamer next
morning, be in Dublin at 5.15 o'clock in the afternoon of
the third day, and in Euston-square early the next morn-
ing. He will thus have traversed about 1031 miles by
railway (first class), and other conveyance, for about £6.
See advertisements.
Good accommodation, although not very extensive, may
be procured at Headford, Cong, Maam, and Oughtcrard,
each locality possessing a post office ; and what may be
wanting in hotel appliances will be found to be made up
for in civility and moderation of charges.
The tourist may also proceed by Maam, through the
valley between Joyce Country and Connamara to the Kil-
leries, by Leenane and Kylemore, to Clifden, where good
accommodation can be procured; or from Leenane to West-
CHAPTER III.
GALWAY TO AKN T AGEDOWK
PAEISH OF ST. NICHOLAS. TEEEILAN CASTLE. ANNALS OF GALWAY. THE DE
EUBGOS. MENLOFGH. PAEISH OF OEANilOEE. THE LOWEE LAKE. CLAEE-
GALWAY PAEISH, CASTLE, AND CONVENT CHUECH. ANCIENT PLOUGHS.
KNOCKNATUATH; the battle of the chieftains ; THE ieish against
THE IEISH ; THE BOOK OF HOWTH ; THE ENGAGEMENT, AND THE EOT7T.
CEEGG CASTLE ; ATHCLOIGGEEN ; THE HAG's CASTLE.
" Now then, time's up — strike the bell — stand by good peo-
ple, the gentlemen don't want any more lobsters at sixpence
a piece — shove along that vagabond pig — get these barrels and
meal bags forward — pull in the gangway — throw off the line —
move her ahead." We are afloat on the River Gallive, with
our larboard side to the deserted breweries and never com-
pleted factories, by which runs to waste upwards of a thousand
horse power in the rapid river — ^vith our starboard along side
Terrilan, Tir-OUlen, the pass or "ford of Oillen " — the ruined
castellated mansion, figured in the following cut, 75 feet long
by 25 broad, and said by tradition to have been one of the
earliest locations of the Earls of Clanricade. It possesses little
40
TERRILAN CASTLE.
architectural or picturesque interest, as, like most ruins in the
neighbourhood of crowded localities, every accessible quoin or
dressed stone has been removed, to assist in erecting whatever
structures not composed of mud may be seen in the neigh-
bouring cabins of Bohermore, and other equally classic sub-
urban villas on the south slope of the heights of Caher Gal-
live ; and no fostering ivy has as yet thrown a green mantle
over its bare grey walls.
Numerous are the legends still repeated of the prowess of
the De Burgos, and the wiles and daring of the OTlahertys,
in connexion with this castle, erected to defend the river's
ford at this point. It is frequently alluded to in the "Annals
THE CASTLE OF GALWAY.
41
of the Four Masters,"* and in other authentic histories, and
so late as 1641 it was garrisoned by Dermot O'Daly.
Where the earliest Castle of Galway absolutely stood, un-
less at this spot, it is now difficult to determine. Turgesius,
the sanguinary Danish commander, overran Connaught in 835,
and "the ancient town of Galway was destroyed." Hardiman
says, the Castle. Dune-bun na Gaillve, or the fortification at the
mouth of the Galway river, was erected soon after the defeat
* Early in the seventeenth century a learned Irishman, Hugh Ward,
head of the Franciscans at Louvain, sent Michael O'Cleary, a lay brother
of that order, and a distinguished scholar and hereditary antiquary, to Ire-
land, to collect materials for lives of saints, which, after Ward's death,
were used by Colgan in his "Acta Sanctorum." Michael associated with
him two other scribes, antiquarians, and genealogists of his tribe, Conor
and Peregrine O'Cleary, and also Fearfassa O'Mulcorey, or Conry, and
O'Dugan, &c; and, besides other works, they compiled from all the then
available sources a book of the " Annals of Ireland," from the earliest
period to the year 1616, and which they completed at Donegal, in 1634.
Colgan, writing of this work shortly afterwards, styled it, Annales Quatuor
Magistrorum, and hence the appellation of the " Four Masters," in imita-
tion of a similar term employed by early medical writers. See the author's
description of the Annals of Ireland, in the " Census Reports for 1851,"
vol. v. published in 1856.
The learned Dr. O'Conor published an annotated version of a por-
tion of these annals, and Professor Connellan translated and published
those from 1171 to 1616. Subsequently all these annals were translated
into English, and copiously annotated, by the late John O'Donovan, and
now form seven large quarto volumes, published by Hodges and Smith ;
and it may fearlessly be asserted that they are the most extensive, truthful,
and learned historic and topographical work of their kind in Europe.
42 ANNALS OF GALWAY.
of the Danes at Clontarf ; and then its erection, and the im-
provement of the town, were a source of jealousy to the people
of Munster, between whom and those of Connaught there had
long existed a considerable degree of competition. Conor,
King of Munster, in 1132 despatched a body of troops by sea,
commanded by Cormac Mac Carthy, who besieged and took
the Castle. Again, in 1149, Turlogh O'Brien, King of Mun-
ster, invaded Connaught, and destroyed the town and Castle
of Galway, which ravages, however, appear to have been soon
after repaired. In 1230 Hugh O'Flaherty, the chief of his
name, fortified himself in the Castle of Galway, which, by his
spirited resistance, he was able to keep against De Burgo.
The foregoing references to castles and fortified houses
(neither uncemented Duns, Cahers, nor Cashels, such as shall
presently engage our attention), out of hundreds which could
be adduced of fortifications, churches, and bridges, erected by
Irish chieftains long prior to the date of the Anglo-Norman
invasion, are here worthy of notice, and might afford mate-
rials for a dissertation, if the question required further proof.
Yet still some of the architectural lights from across the water,
unfamiliar with our early history, occasionally propound the
doctrine that the Irish were unacquainted with the use of mor-
tar until taught by the invaders of 1172. Our traditions are
to be approached with reverence, and investigated with care ;
and there can be no doubt that the eclectic examination made
of our annals during the last thirty years, and a comparison
THE DE BURGOS. 43
of the ancient literary records, or the story of the shannaghie,
with the existing monuments, have largely tended to confirm
the truth of Irish history ; nor have we any doubt that they
will be still further elucidated, when a more extended exami-
nation of the three memorials of the past — the record, the
legend, and the existing monument — shall have been made by
learned, faithful, and unspeculative scholars and antiquaries.
The subject of this digression introduces to us a family
which, of all the Anglo-Norman chieftains who came over at
the time of the invasion (except the Geraldines), exercised
most influence, retained most territory, and still possess most
power in Ireland. The descendants of William Fitzadelm De
Burgo, who arrived with Strongbow Earl of Pembroke, in
1172, acquired more land, built more castles, and left a more
widespread name than most of those whose ancestors had con-
quered Harold on the battlefield of Hastings — a fact which
may be accounted for by the circumstance of their having been
among the very first of those who earned the title of Hiber-
niores ipsis Hibernicis ; having as frequently been found fight-
ing side by side with the Celt as taking part with the Saxon :
although members of that family were more than once the
English King's Deputy in Ireland. Sir William Leigh De
Burgh, who died in 1324, and was interred in the Abbey of
St. Francis, at Galway, left seven sons, the eldest of whom, Sir
Ulick of Annaghkeen, was the first Mac William lighter, or
of the "upper" or Galway Connacean territory; and from his
44 THE OUGHTERS AND EIGHTERS.
son Rikard has descended the family of the Clanricarde, one
of whom, Walter De Burgo, who was styled Earl of Ulster,
in right of his wife, daughter of Hugo de Lacey, was assassi-
nated at Carrickfergus in 1333. Another branch of this family,
descended from Eclmond Albanagh, or "The Scot," possessed
the lower or Mayo territory, and took the title of Mac William
Eightei*, from whom the Earls of Mayo have descended. Both
the De Burgos, however, in the early part of the fourteenth
century, shook off obedience to the English laws, renounced
their allegiance to the Crown ; and, u in order to conciliate
the natives in their favour, discontinued the use of the English
language, threw off their English dress, and adopted both the
language and apparel of the Irish, embraced the Irish laws,
and transmitted their possessions in the course of tanistry and
gavelkind." So much for the De Burgos, now called Burkes
or Bourkes — a name of very frequent announcement in the
entire West of Ireland, and especially along the shores of
Lough Corrib.
Passing up the river by Jordan's Island, we steam past
Menlough Castle, the picturesque residence of Sir Thomas
Blake, Bart., standing on the water's edge, with the remains
of the outer walls on the south, and presenting to us, as shown
by the subsequent cut, one of the handsomest of the inha-
bited old castles of Ireland. Neither the family records, nor
any of the published histories, afford a clue to the date of its
erection ; but the Menlough family founded one of the tribes
MENLOUGH CASTLE.
45
of Galway, and are connected with, if not descended from,
the English Blakes of Cumberland.
At the rere of the castle may be seen the village of Men-
lough, one of the largest collections of cabins in Ireland, and
the inhabitants of which formerly exercised, in conjunction with
those of the Claddagh, so potential an influence upon the re-
turn of the member for Galway. The inhabitants of this vil-
lage amounted in 1841, to 1100; in 1851, to 764; and in
1861 they had fallen to 682. What a source of wealth the
children of this village could be made to some enterprising
manufacturer, who might employ them, and hundreds of others
in the vicinity, at from three to sixpence a day !
Around the village of Menlough we see nothing but stones,
stones, stones; but on the opposite bank we have Dangan,
46 ST. NICHOLAS AND ORANMORE PARISHES.
the original seat of the Martins, lately converted into a nun-
nery, but now deserted even by the benevolent sisters ; and
also Bushy Park, and other residences of the neighbouring
gentry.
So far on our course we have passed through the barony
as well as the county of Galway — between the parishes of
Rahoon on the left and St. NICHOLAS on the right; and in the
latter, besides that of Terrilan, already described, we have the
ruins of Castlegar, Ballybrit, and Merlin Castles ; but they are
not of sufficient importance nor vicinity to the lake to merit
a detailed description, or require illustration.
The large parish of ORANMORE, through a portion of which
we passed on approaching Galway, and which contains the
castle and townland of Menlough, here runs down to the lake
margin between those of St. Nicholas and Clare-Galway ; but
its early inhabitants seem to have concentrated their energies
more upon its sea-board than its lacustrine border, and have
left us nothing worthy of attention at this end of it, except
the ruins of the square Castle of Cloonacanneen and that of
Carrowbrowne.
Here, as we pass upwards, the Corrib River diverges to the
west ; and, being too shallow and rocky for the passage of
the "Eglinton," we enter, through a deep sedgy marsh or bog,
about a mile in length, the canal traditionally called the
" Friars' Cut," as explained at page 36. Leaving behind us
the long curling sludgy waves that rush like serpents along
CLARE-GALWAY. 47
the banks, as if to overtake us, as we pass through this Cut,
we emerge into the broad blue waters of the Lower Lake.
On the left, or western side of our course, may be seen the
ridge of hills that stretches from Galway to Oughterard ; and
along their slopes the demesnes of Woodstock, Farm, Danes-
field ; and also the village of Moycullen, now the property of
Lord Campbell ; beyond which appear, as we proceed, the
woods of Drimcong, Knockbane, and Ross.
Putting on full speed as we leave the Friars' Cut, and pass
into the broad uninterrupted space of the lower lake, we have
on our right the marble quarries of Angliham, and soon get a
glimpse over the low limestone plain, eastward of our course, of
the butt of the old castle, and the tall slender tower that rises
from the centre of the Abbey or cruciform church of the Con-
vent of Clare-Gal way, which, although at some distance from
the water's edge, is not without our prescribed parochial limits,
and is of too great beauty and importance to be omitted ; and,
moreover, it is on the highroad between Galway and Cong,
being but six miles' distance from the former. A more pic-
turesque group of ruins, or one comprising a greater variety for
the display of the artist's pencil, can scarcely be found, even
amidst the multitudinous remains that crowed the parishes abut-
ting upon Lough Corrib, than this scene presented in former
days — with its little mill, and slow winding river passing
under a long, low, many-arched bridge, but which is now re-
placed by a canal, and a single formal arch.
48 IRISH CASTLE ARCHITECTURE.
The massive square ivy-clad keep of the castle, now used
as a barn, stands on the east of the roadside, and was for-
merly the residence of Mac William lighter De Burgo, as
stated by the Four Masters, under the date 1469, in which year
it was burned by Hugh Roe O'Donnell. As it was contiguous
to the famous battle-field of Knocktuagh, fought between the
Earls of Kildare and Clanricarde in 1504, it was occupied
by the Irish party; and in 1512 it was again the seat of war.
It is at present 63 feet high, 20 long, and 20 broad, and par-
takes of the general characteristics of such buildings in the
West — consisting of a pointed-arched entrance to the porch,
within which is the usual Poul-na-morrough or "murdering
hole," an aperture in the thick vaulted roof above, through
which missiles could be showered on assailants who had gained
an entrance through the outer door. A winding stone stair-
case leads from story to story, the lower one of which was
usually stone-arched, and over it an upper apartment with a
large handsome chimneypiece, and illuminated by mullioned
or decorated narrow lights; and, as here, a corbelled projec-
tion all round for supporting a wooden floor, or sometimes a
stone-arched one ; and above that the parapet, either plain or
corbied, and having one or more turrets at the angles ; while
the prison, gardrobe, and some secret hiding holes, were
usually placed in the thickness of the northern wall. In ad-
dition, this castle had a portcullis, the groove of which shows
long and constant usage.
IRISH CASTLE ARCHITECTURE. 49
In a document styled "The Division of Connaught, A. D.
1586," now in the British Museum, no less than thirty-three
castles are enumerated in the barony of Clare, chiefly of De
Burgo origin ; but all are now either in ruins, or their sites
only discernible by heaps of stones.
Writers on domestic and defensive architecture, alluding to
these castles, erected in Ireland between the fourteenth and six-
teenth centuries, are too much in the habit of looking upon our
castellated mansions as mere guardrooms for the security and
defence of the soldiery by which they were garrisoned, without
taking into consideration the artistic skill and taste with which
many of them were adorned ; nor remembering the ladies bright
and accomplished, who " walked in silk attire ;" the bards and
minstrels, with their harps, and songs, and legends ; the scholars
learned, the clerics pious, as well as the valiant knights and
nobles, in their burnished armour and nodding plumes, by
whom they were tenanted, but of whose social life and habits
we know little. In looking back upon those ages, it is scarcely
possible to disassociate from skill, taste, and refinement in archi-
tecture, similar personal culture and costume ; but until some
gifted poetic child of Erin, with an eye to see, and a pen to
paint the beauties of both nature and art — observation to appre-
ciate and display the workings of the human heart — dramatic —
learned in the history of the past — antiquarian in knowledge,
and patriotic in feeling — and, above all, possessing that rare gift
of fusing fiction with fact, and weaving the romance with the le-
E
50 clare-galway.
gend, as Scott did for the history and monuments of his native
country — the castle may crumble, the abbey moulder, the war-
rior lie unremembered, and the lady fair unwept for, in this
land so fertile in imagination, and so profound in pathos. And
until the proprietors who own these castles feel proud of their
heritage or their acquisition, and the clerics who claim by trans-
mitted hereditary right these abbeys, and who perhaps hope to
claim them on a future day, take some interest in their preser-
vation, the most the modern writer can do is to invoke public
opinion; while the tourist will still have, for yet many a day, to
grope his way among these crumbling walls, through mud and
briers, and to disturb the bullock calves, and fat wedders, that
may almost invariably be found desecrating the tombs that pave
these sacred aisles, and disturb the goats that take occasional
shelter even underneath their high altars.
The records state that about the year 1290, John De Cogan
built a Monastery at Clare-yn-dowl for Franciscan Friars, in a
very elegant style, and at great expense. A few brothers of
the order performed service in the small northern chapel within
the last six years ; but all that now remains of recent occupancy
within these consecrated precincts are a cowhouse and pigstye.
Although the modern name of this parish is Clare-Galway,
it is called in Irish Bailie- Clair or Bally -an- Clave, the Bally or
town of the Claire or "flat" — a title which it well deserves.
There are several Clares and Bally- CI ares in Connaught — and
it requires some topographical knowledge to distinguish which
( LARE-GALWAY CHURCH. 51
is the one referred to in the annals and histories ; but this par-
ticular locality is styled, in most ancient documents, " Clare-en-
Dowl" "the Devil's Flat," or board, because, according to the
local traditions, the rapid river at this place was formerly
crossed on planks supported on pillars.
The ruins of the Abbey or Convent Church stand on the
right or northern bank of the river, a little below the Castle ;
and, like most other structures which came from the hands of
those noble church-builders, the Franciscans, it is characterized
by a taste and elegance wdiich neither time, nor the rough
hand of the despoiler, nor even the gross neglect of modern
proprietors has been able to efface. It was originally cruci-
form ; and from the intersection of nave, choir, and transepts,
was reared, on high pointed arches, a tall slender tower, that
for graceful proportions may vie with, if indeed it does not
surpass, any other of its kind in Ireland.
AVhen the sun breaks forth after a passing shower, bright-
ening up a side of this tower, and throwing out the gorgeous
colours of golden lichen clothing its grey time-beaten stones,
and contrasting with the brilliant green of the pellitory and um-
belliferous plants that cluster on its string courses, and around
its windows and corbied parapet, a more glorious effect, and at
the same time a more beauteous harmony of colour and form,
can scarcely be imagined. The illustration of this ruin in the
following page has been taken from the south-east, and repre-
sents, besides the tower, which is seen from a great distance all
E 2
52
CLARE-GALWAY ABBEY
round, the dilapidated east window, the northern arches of the
nave, and the small chapel, in which the friars had service
within the last few years. The entire length of this church
was 142 feet, and that of the transept, 112. The height of the
tower is probably 80 feet. Among the references made to
this place by our annalists and ecclesiologists, it is said, under
the date of 1296, that Philip de Blund, Archdeacon ofTuam,
during the time of the dispute respecting the episcopacy of
Enachdun, took by violence from the friars of Clare-Galway,
in which place they had been deposited, the pontificalia, con-
sisting of the chest containing the " episcopal mitre, together
GALWAY PLOUGHS IN 1696 AND 1 773. 53
with the pastoral staff, and sundry other things," of the neigh-
bouring cathedral.
There are not now many tombs of note within the pre-
cincts of this venerable and still beautiful pile ; but among the
well-cut flagstones paving the aisles of nave and transept, may
be seen early indications of the agricultural skill of the people
of this great fertile plain or Clare, in the number and variety
of ploughs carved upon them. They bear date from the middle
of the seventeenth to the end of the eighteenth centuries ; and
the two preceding facsimile cuts, selected out of eight, repre-
sent that early civilizer as it existed in Galway, the upper one
in 1696, and the lower in 1773. Neither seems to have been
54 THE HILL OF KNOCKTOE.
drawn by the horse's tail, against which so many enactments
had been made in former days ; but which practice, it is said,
had not been altogether discontinued in Erris at the early part
of the present century.
Upon the left or southern bank of the river stands a large
ecclesiastical ruin, surrounded by a graveyard.
About eight miles from the City of the Tribes, and behind,
and somewhat to the north-east of Clare-Galway, rises a sloping
green elevation, crowned by the dilapidated mansion of the late
Major A. Kir wan, and which is known as Knocktoe, or Knoc-
na-tuadh, "the hill of the hatchets" or battle-axes, from the
following circumstances ; although the name is probably older
than the assigned date. At the beginning of the sixteenth cen-
tury, Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, was the English King's
(Henry VII.), Lord Deputy in Ireland, and had married Eus-
tacia, one of his daughters, to Ulick Mac William De Burgo,
Earl of Clanricarde ; but, according to the narrative, she u was
not so used as the Earl [Gerald] could be pleased with, and
he said he would be revenged upon this Irishman [Mac Wil-
liam], who stood at defiance with the Earl and all his partakers."
The Deputy thereon assembled a great army, and marched
into Connaught in August, 1504, bringing with him O'Reilly,
O'Conor of Ofaley (it is said O'Neill), Sir Nicholas Lord of
Howth ; the Barons of Delvin, Gormanstown, Killeen, Slane,
and Trimbleston ; with Hollywood of Artane, and other nobles
and gentles of "the best men in all the English Pale." Some
THE GERALDENES AND DE BURGOS. 55
border chiefs also flocked to his standard — as O'Hanlon, O'Far-
rell, Mac Mahon, OBeirn, and, according to some writers, Hugh
Roe O'Donnell ; and "he was joined by the forces of almost all
the Northern half of Ireland." Some of the Connaceans like-
wise joined the Viceroy's army — as O'Conor Roe from Sligo ;
The Mac Dermot of Moylurg ; and even the Mayo or lower
branch of the De Burgos, the sons of Mac William Eighter
and all the O'Kellys, from the neighbouring territory of Hy-
Many ; for, according to the statement in the "Four Masters,"
the true cause of quarrel and immediate excuse for this rising
was, that O'Kelly had complained to the Lord Justice that
Ulick, third Earl of Clanricarde, had demolished three of his
castles ; and we read elsewhere that the Clan-Rickard Burkes,
being " of Englishe nacion, berith mortal hate to the Kellys,"
w T ho were of the old Irish stock.
There also came with the King's representative several
bishops, clerics, and lawyers. On seeing which class of non-
belligerents, O'Neill is said to have thus addressed his chief at a
council of war, held within a short distance of this hill on the
day before the battle : — " My Lord of Kildare, command the
bishopps to go home and pray ; for bishops' councells ought not
to be taken in matters of warr, for their profession is to pray
and preach, to make fair weather, and not to be privy to man-
slaughter or bloodshed, but in preaching and teaching the Word
of God." And with respect to the men learned in the law
O'Conor said: — "Wee have no matters of pleading, nor matters
56 ADVICE TO CLERICS AND LAWYERS.
of arguments, nor matter to debate, nor to be discussed by pen
and ink, but by the bow, speare, and sword; and the valiant
host of gentlemen and men of warr, by their fierce and lofty
doings ; and not by the simple, sorry, weak, and doubtful sto-
machs of learned men ; for I never saw those that were learned
give good counsaile in matters of warr ; for they were always
doubting, staying, or persuading men in frivolous and uncertain
words. Away with them ! they are overbold to press among
this company ; for our matter is to be decided by valiant and
stout stomachs of prudent and wise men of warr, practised
in the same faculty, and not matters of law nor matters of
religion."
On the other side Clanricarde mustered a great army to
give them battle, among whom, with their clans, were Turlogh
O'Brien, Lord of Thomond, and his brother, with all their
forces ; the Siol-Aedha, or the Macnamaras ; and Mulrony
O'Carroll, Lord of Ely, with all his clans and chieftains, who
were joined by the nobles of Ormond and Ara. — See Annals of
The Four Masters.
The Irish held possession of the hill ; and the battle was
fought, on the 19th of August, in the plain that slopes by the
north-east to Turloughrnore. Both sides had cavalry, and the
English at least had archers ; but the chief stay of both armies
were the gallowglasses, with their bright battle-axes, and the
De Burgo contingent of which was headed by the redoubtable
Mac Swine, so famed for his prowess in the use of that weapon.
THE BOOK OF HOWTH. 57
By the so-called English army the battle was " sett" by placing
the horse on the left or southern wing, under Baron Delvin ;
"the bowmen [were] put in two wings, of which the Lords of
Gormanstown and Killeen had the charge, being good men that
day ; the billmen in the main battle, of which the Lord of
Howth was leader, and in the vanguard himself."
The Connaught and Munster men, or so-called Irish Army,
says the chronicler, in the " Book of Howth," spent "all that
night watching, and drinking, and playing at cards, who should
have this prisoner or that prisoner, and thus they passed the
night over ; and at morrow they prepared for battle in such
order as their custom was. * * They set forward their gallow-
glass and footmen in one main battle, and all their horse on
their left [or northern] side, and so came on."*
The Lord Deputy, " a mighty man of station," who rode
* The "Book of Howth'' is a MS. of the sixteenth century, now in the
Carew Collection preserved in the Lambeth Library. See Hardiman's notes
to O'Flaherty's " H-Iar Connaught," p. 154, from whence the foregoing ex-
tracts have been taken. See also the "Annals of The Four Masters" under
a. d. 1504; O'Donovan's Letters on Gal way, in Ordnance Collection, in Li-
brary of Royal Irish Academy ; and Gilbert's " History of the Viceroys of
Ireland," p. 468. A remarkable discrepancy occurs between the Howth and
Donegal Annalists, the former of whom, writing earlier than the latter, states
that O'Neal was with Kildare at Knocktuadh, and ignores the presence of
O'Donnell. The latter enumerates O'Donnell among the advisers and chief
supporters of the Deputy, but says that O'Neill was not there. See also the
latest description of the Battle of Knocktoe, in Haverty's History of Ireland 7
1860, p. 343.
58 THE BATTLE OF KNOCKTUATH.
upon a black horse, made the following oration just before the
engagement: "Here is against us a great number of people with-
out weapons, for a great number of them have but a spear and
a knife; without wisdom, or good order, they march to battle
as drunken as swine to a trough, which makes them more rash
and foolish men, than wise and valiant. Kemember, all that we
have done rests upon this day's service, and also the honour
of our Prince ; and remember how we are in a country un-
known to the most number of us, and farr from our towns and
castles." When the Earl had proceeded thus far, three great
cries were heard, probably of Gall riagh aboo, the battle cry of
the De Burgos, as Crom a boo was that of the Geraldines.
"The English archers lent such a shower of arrows, that the
weapons [of the Irish gallowglasses] and their hands were fas-
tened together. Mac Swine struck Darcy such a blow upon
the helmet, that he put him upon his knees. With that, Nan-
gle, Baron of the Nowan, being a lusty gentleman that day,
gave Mac Swine such payment, that he was satisfied ever after.
They fought terrible and bould awhile, [but] the Irish fled." A
Dublin soldier struck an Irish horseman "with a gun, with both
his hands, and so let out his brains." This is the only notice
of firearms recorded in any of the narrations of the battle ; and
the gun, which was probably a matchlock, seems to have been
used more as a shillelah or clath-alpeen, than as a chemical ex-
plosive projectile.
Far from the field of action, wrote the Donegal Annal-
THE DEFEAT. 59
ists — possibly quoting or paraphrasing some of the grandilo-
quent descriptions of the contemporaneous poets or prose writ-
ers of the locality — "were heard the violent onset of the martial
chiefs, the vehement efforts of the champions, the charge of
the royal heroes, the noise of the lords, the clamour of the
troops when endangered, the shouts and exultations of the
youths, the sound made by the falling of the brave men, and
the triumphing of the nobles over the plebeians. The battle
was at length gained against Mac William, O'Brien, and [the
chiefs of] Leath Mhogha, and a great slaughter was made of
them ; and among the slain was Murrough Mac-I-Brien Ara,
together with many others of the nobles. And of the nine
battalions which were in solid battle array, there survived
only one broken battalion." — Annals of The Four Masters.
" The young Gerot [Kildare's son, who had been stationed
-with the reserve], seeing the battle join, could not stand still to
wait his time, as he was appointed by the Earl his father, but
set on with the foremost, in such sort that no man alive could
do better with his own hands than he did that day for man-
hood of a man. But by reason of his hastyness, not tarrying
in the place appointed, all the English carriage was taken by
the Irish horse, and a few of the English gentlemen taken pri-
soners." — Book of Howth.
The numbers slain in this battle are variously stated — some
writers asserting that the Irish lost 9000, and others only 2000.
It was evidently a hand-to-hand fight without firearms, and only
60 THE NORMAN-IRISH CHIEFTAINS.
lasted a few hours before the rout commenced ; and it is
scarcely possible that 9000 persons were killed on either side.
Some writers have fallen into the error of styling this memo-
rable battle an engagement between the English and Irish;
whereas it was neither more nor less than the result of a per-
sonal quarrel between two rival Norman-Irish Chieftains, the
Geraldine and the De Burgo, who, having their own aggran-
dizement in view, used the " mere Irish" to assist them in
their personal quarrels and family feuds. The battle of Knock-
tuath was not fought between English and Irish, but between
the Leath- Chuinn or Northern chieftains, assisted by the East-
erns, and the Leath-Mhogha, or the Southern or Munstermen,
together with those of the western portion of Connaught — in
which the latter were defeated, as they probably might be in
later times. Kildare and his army proceeded to Galway, "car-
rying with them as prisoners the two sons and a daughter of
Mac William ;" probably from Clare-Galway Castle.
Passing along the road from Clare-Galway by Leacht-
George (for which see description of Castle Creevy at page
78), and northwards towards Headford, we cross an angle of
Lackagh parish. Upon the left of the road stands a very fine
liss or earthen fort ; and on the right are the young woods of
Baunmore, the property of Richard A. H. Kirwan, Esq. "We
then proceed by Cregg Castle, the seat of Francis Blake, Esq.,
which with Menlough is one of the few old castellated man-
sions still inhabited in Connaught. It was erected by Patrick
TOLOKYAN CASTLE. ()1
Kir wan in 1648, and stands in a spacious well-wooded de-
mesne, and was the birth-place and formerly the residence of
the distinguished philosopher, and President of the Royal Irish
Academy, to whom allusion has been already made at page
10.* Within Cregg demesne there is a small ruined church,
and to the south-west is seen the tower of Liscanniaun Castle,
and more to the west stands Drumgriffin held by Ullig Reogh
in 1586.
Outside the north side of the demesne is a pretty bit of land-
scape, and a "flash" of water called Ath-cloiggeen, or the "ford
of the little bell ;" and beyond it the mills of Cregg, near which
the tourist, if travelling by the road, can turn down to the lake
side by Winterfield, through the parish of Annaghdown; but, to
pursue our lacustrine course, we must rejoin the steamer, and,
passing up through the lower lake, approach the group of ruins
which stands beside the landing place of Annaghdown.
As we leave the Friars' Cut, and steam through the lower
lake, and also while passing through the narrow rocky portion
ahead of our course, the long, low sterile district of Gnomore
and Gnobeg, with the flat, lake margins of the parishes of
Moycullen and Killannan come into view on the west ; and
as the eye traverses this apparently sterile region, it rests
occasionally on the chimney of the lead mine at Gortmore,
and the grey side wall of Tolokian Castle, popularly called
* See Mr. Donovan's Memoir of Richard Kirwan, in the Proceedings of
the Royal Irish Academy, vol. iv., page 480— Ixxxi.
62
FAMILY FEUDS.
Caislean-na-Cailliaghe, or the Hag's Castle and of which the
accompanying illustration,
from a drawing made by
Mr. Wakeman for the Ord-
nance Survey, many years
ago, gives a good idea.
This castle is called Tullo-
kyne on the Ordnance Map,
and it must not be con-
founded with the Caislen-
na-Caillighe on Lough Mask,
referred to in the Donegal
Annals, under A. D. 1195. In
1586, Muriertagh O'Conor
held the castle of Tullekyhan.
Of its origin, or true history, we know nothing; but it is
mentioned by O'Flaherty in 1684, when a similar structure, a
few paces distant, existed, but which was blown down by
the great storm of January, 1839. They were called, says
Hardiman, "the Castles of the two Sisters, of whom some ro-
mantic tales of former days are still current." Among these,
the people state that when these old maids were too old
to visit, they built these castles in such close contiguity in order
that they might daily "barge" one another from their respec-
tive windows. At long run, however, the dame that owned
the present ruin cut short the dispute by killing^her sister.
CHAPTER IV.
ANtfAGHDOWN TO KYLEBEG.
ANNAGHBOWN PARISH, AND ANCIENT BISHOPRIC ; ST. BRENBAN. THE BES-
MONB AND O'BONNELL COSTUME. THE MONASTERY ANB ABBEY. ANCIENT
TOMBS. THE NUNNERY. WIN BOW OF MOBERN CHURCH. THE CLOIC-
THEACH OF ANNAGHBOWN. THE CASTLE ANB HOLY WELLS. CASTLE
CREEYY. KILCOONA PARISH; CHURCH, AND ROUNB TOWER. HISTORF AND
WRITINGS OF ST. COONA. PARISH OF KILLEANY. CLOCH-AN-UAIBHER
CASTLE. LEE'S ISLAND. KNOCK FERRY AND KYLEBEG.
ANNAGHDOWN, Annaghdune, or Enough-Duin, the dun or "for-
tress of the bog" — and in modern Irish, Enagh-coin, "the fort
of the bog," or possibly of St. Coona — giving name to a large
parish in the barony of Clare, about twelve miles from Galway,
is the first stopping place of the steamer, and contains the chief
group of ruins that occur on the eastern shore of Lough Corrib,
on our upward route. They consist of, a picturesque tall square
castle, still in fine preservation, the walls of the Bishop's resi-
dence, with the wells of St. Brendan, the founder, and St.
Cormack, on the south ; and the extensive remains of an Abbey
and Monastery, and also a Nunnery, and other ecclesiastical
buildings, on the north side of a rocky inlet of the lake, into
64 THE BISHOPRIC OF ANNAGHDOWN.
which a small stream pours its waters. In early Christian
times this was the site of the fifth Bishop's See in Connaught,
the boundary of which was coextensive with the seigniority of
Iar Connaught, and in the territory of the chiefs of Hy-Brien
Seola, the progenitors of the O'Flahertys, ere they were driven
by the De Burgos and other English settlers westward, across
the lake, into the baronies of Moycullen and Ross.
It is stated in the "Book of Ballymote" that Aodha, son of
Eochy Tirmacarna, King of Connaught, bestowed Enaghdun
on God and St. Brendan of Clonfert; and it is probable that
the ancient see of Cong was transferred here early in the
twelfth century.
St. Brendan, having established a nunnery, and placed his
sister Briga, a canoness of the Augustinian order, over it,
died here, but was interred at Clonfert, A.D. 577. Several of
its bishops are mentioned in the Irish Annals ; but the episco-
pal lords of the neighbouring diocese of St. Jarlath, and espe-
cially Archbishop Mac Hugh, feeling perhaps some jealousy on
the subject, induced Pope John XXII. in 1321 to issue a bull
to suppress it, and join it to that of Tuam ; and many of its re-
venues and valuables were transferred to the collegiate church
of St. Nicholas in Galway. The mandate of the Pontiff does not,
however, appear to have been implicitly obeyed either by the
Irish or English ; for some of its bishops are enumerated after
that date; and, so late as 1484, Richard III. "dispatched to
Ireland Thomas Barrett, a cleric of Somerset, who had been ap-
.
THE DESMOND AND o'dONNELL COSTUMES. 65
pointed to the bishopric of Enagh-dun, in Connaught, to in-
struct the Deputy Kildare by all possible means to bring into
the King's power the Earldom of Ulster, then almost entirely
possessed by the native Irish." And in order to conciliate the
Desmond of the day, the Bishop brought a royal message that
he should "renounce the wearing and usage of the Irish array;"
and presented him with the King's livery, consisting of a collar
of gold, weighing twenty ounces ; and from the King's ward-
robe a lono- o-own of cloth of gold lined with satin, doublets
CD O c '
of velvet and crimson satin ; stomachers, shirts, and kerchiefs ;
hose of scarlet, violet, and black colours ; bonnets, hats, and
tippets of velvet, &c* But, gorgeous and enticing as this Eng-
lish " array" was, it will not bear comparison with that of Cor-
mac Mac Art many centuries before, as related in the " Book
of Ballymote ;"f nor of O'Donnell, respecting whose costume
the Lord Deputy St. Leger, when that Irish chieftain requested
"Parliament robes," informed the King that — "At such time as
he mette with me he was in a cote of crymoisin velvet, with
eggletts of gold, xx or xxx payer. Over that a greate doble
cote of right crymoisin satin, garded with black velvet ; a bon-
net, with a fether set full of eggletts of gold, &c." And, as
regards the twenty ounces of gold sent to tempt the Desmond,
we had, and still have, far finer and more costly gold orna-
* See Gilbert's " History of the Viceroys of Ireland," p. 415.
t See O'Curry's "Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish
History," p. 45.
66 ANNAGHDOWN.
merits even of Pagan times ; and only the other day an antique
gold ornament, weighing twenty-six and a-half ounces, was
procured by the Royal Irish Academy from the county of
Tipperary.
Eventually, the bishopric of Annaghdown was incorporated
with that of Tuam ; but it does not appear, from the histories, to
have been given up without a struggle; and the adjoining castle,
which is probably of De Burgo origin, was significantly placed
on the south shore of the little creek between the residence of
the diocesan and his cathedral: while, at the same time, it com-
manded an extensive view of the country of the O'Flahertys
towards the west. When the Monastery of Annaghdown was
suppressed, it was granted to Richard Earl of Clanricarde.
Not many years ago there was an extensive village here,
nineteen of the inhabitants of which and the adjoining town-
lands were drowned near Menlough, when sailing in a rickety
old boat with their sheep to Galway fair, which event gave
origin to one of the most mournful of the Irish laments of
recent days. Now there is but one house remaining, inhabited
by the man who attends the steamer, and who will act as a
guide to persons anxious to explore the ruins.
Passing up the road to the east, we reach the crumbling
walls, constructed chiefly of round, undressed stones, of an
extensive monastic building, of which the succeeding illustra-
tion is a faithful representation.
Attached to the north side of the monastery is the Abbey
THE ABBEY AND MONASTERY.
67
Church, the west gable and the north walls of which are still
standing, as also a portion of the south walls at the west, where
it is supported by a remarkably well-built buttress of dressed
stone, evidently of much later date. The entire length of this
Domhnach-mor, or large cathedral church, is 108 feet 9 inches,
by 21 feet 2 inches broad in the clear, of which space the
chancel occupies 17J feet by 141, having a reveal of four feet
on each side.
The northern entrance, near the western end, which is still
intact, has a deeply-moulded pointed arch; but that on the south,
which was probably nearer the east, for the accommodation of
the clerics, is undistinguishable. The choir arch has also been
completely destroyed; but several of the stones of the clustered
f2
68 THE PRESENT AND THE PAST.
pillars that supported it can be seen strewn around, or forming
headstones to modern graves. Owing to the luxuriant growth
of the dwarf elder, which has overgrown all the ground in and
around the ruins, it is difficult in summer time to discover or
explore the plan of these, as well as those of other ruins that
are now choked with brambles and underwood.
During past times here and elsewhere, religious fanaticism,
and the ignorance and want of taste in the gentry and farming
classes, or the mischievousness of peasant boys, injured many
of our most beautiful sacred edifices ; and now, when improved
education among the former, and depopulation among the latter,
have arrested these desecrations, weeds, brambles, and wild
shrubs hold undisputed rule among the historic landmarks of
the past. Visiting the cultivated demesnes often located in
the immediate vicinity of some of these Irish ruins, and admir-
ing the carefully -shaven grass-plots and highly cultivated gar-
dens and parterres, the antiquary cannot help wondering why
a few pounds have not been expended upon the preservation of
edifices once devoted to the service of religion, illustrative of
the greatest architectural period of the country, and frequently
containing the mausolea of the ancestors of their proprietors.
And when, again, we see large sums of money expended on
erecting ugly unarchitectural structures for religious worship, we
cannot help asking ourselves why the clergy of Ireland, no
matter what their special persuasion may be, have done no-
thino- to re-edify or restore these monuments of the past.
ANCIENT TOMBS.
69
Clearing away some of the rubbish that had accumulated
under the site of the chancel arch, we lately discovered two re-
markable tombstones, both unhappily broken, and without in-
scriptions ; but each significant of its date and origin — pro-
bably of the fifteenth century. The succeeding cut is that of an
unhewn, irregularly shaped flag, 27 inches by 20, lying un-
derneath a sycamore tree, that nearly fills the choir ; and the
other, bearing a fleur-de-lis ornament, may be seen at a short
distance from it. They were both, pro-
bably, those of ecclesiastics, many no-
tabilities of which class, especially of
the O'Malley and Mac Flynn families,
were buried here. There is one small
trefoil-headed window in the north wall
of the long nave, and another narrow
light in the chancel of this church ; but
the south light in the latter part is still
in partial preservation, and its lion's-
headed impost on the east side is uninjured. A large chasm
in the wall marks the site of the east window. — See page 71.
Archdall, in his " Monasticon Hibernicum," published in
1786, mentions the nunnery at Annaghdown, which, to-
gether with the town of Kelgel, was, by a bull of Pope Ce-
lestine III., granted, in 1195, to the nuns of the Order of
Aroacea ; likewise the Abbey of St. Mary de Porta Patrwn,
70 THE NUNNERY.
for white nuns of the Premonstre Order (probably the present
ruin), a Franciscan friary, and the college of St. Brendan.
To the north-east of the abbey is the nunnery church,
undoubtedly the oldest structure now remaining at Annagh-
down, and the west gable of which, with its small bell tower,
is shown in the general view of the ruins, at page 67. It
possesses no architectural attraction, nor any means of judg-
ing of its precise date, except a Gothic pointed doorway in
the north wall, which portion is still standing, and measures
90 J feet on the outside. Around it on all sides are ves-
tiges of stone foundations ; but whether they are the remains
of the ancient fort or dun, from which, according to some
interpreters, the place derived its name ; or, as is more
probable, the walls of the nunnery buildings, it is now diffi-
cult to determine.
Still more to the east, and adjoining the road, is St. Co-
lumbkill's tree, the legend of the miraculous jump of which
may be learned from the guide ; and to the south stands the
roofless walls of the parochial Church of England edifice, the
intervening space between it and the nunnery being used as
the comparatively modern burial ground.
After frequent and careful examinations we have been un-
able to discover any architectural feature claiming a greater
antiquity for any of these ruins than the fourteenth or fif-
teenth century — no small primitive Pelasgic church, with its
AN ECCLESIASTICAL THEFT.
71
square- headed western doorway — no angular-topped window,
nor any remnant of that peculiar masonry that marked the
period when St. Brendan died here, or when St. Meldan was
abbot or " bishop of Lough Orbsen," although it is more
than probable that the present edifice stands on the site of
the old. It is stated in the records, that the church of
Annaghdown was built by Hugh Mor O'Flaherty in 1400,
and that it was burned eleven years afterwards ; but, pos-
sibly, the former entry may refer to its re-edification.
The east window of this cathedral church has been long
since removed, and nothing now remains there but an irre-
gular gap in the wall ; there can, however, be little doubt
that every stone of that beauteous specimen of mediaeval Irish
work is still in existence ; and thanks to the taste, if not the
honesty, of the architect of the adjacent Protestant church,
it will there be found, presenting interiorly, as perfect a con-
dition as when the adjoining church was unroofed. This
building, like every other ecclesiastical structure at Annagh-
down, is a ruin : and its last use — that of a ball-alley — has
been discontinued for want of Sunday occupants ; and the
present parish church is some miles distant. This window
consists of a deeply-splayed circular-headed light, 8 feet
high in the clear of the opening, and 12 feet high inter-
nally. The accompanying illustration, from a photograph by
Mr. Allen, for which I am indebted to the Earl of Dunra-
ven, who lately accompanied me to this locality, expresses
12
EAST WINDOW AT AXXAOHDOWN.
better than words the skill of the artist who designed the
neighbouring abbey. It was drawn by Mr. Wakeman, and
it has been beautifully engraved by Mr. Oldham. On each
side of the half round moulding, where the deep splay of
the window joins the church wall, there is a line of de-
corated chevrons, in the angles formed by which on both
sides, are sixty-six floral ornaments, still quite sharp, and
each different from the rest, and showing the marvellous
fertility in conception and design of our Irish artists, which
are so well seen in metal-work and enamel on several of
IRISH CHURCH DECORATION,
73
our most ancient shrines and croziers, and in the tracings
on manuscripts, as well as in the limestone decoration of
many of our churches and castles. Of the latter we have
a notable example in the banqueting hall at Aughnanure,
on the opposite shore of the lake, to be described further on.
The annexed cut shows the base of one of the angles in
this window. The church
itself, which cannot be 200
years old, is, with the
exception of its northern
doorway, otherwise wholly
undecorated. Architects
acquainted with ' early
church architecture can-
not but regard this win-
dow as one of the most §j
perfect and beautiful specimens of decorated stone work now
existing in the island.
In the "Annals of the Four Masters" we find the follow-
ing entry :— « A. D. 1238, the Cloictheach of Annadown was
erected." This is the latest notice of a Chic Teach* " bell
" The term Cloic- Teach, Bell frie or Bell's house, for the Bound Towers
was first promulgated by Sir Thomas Molyneux in 1725 ; and he was
very near to the discovery of all their true uses, although he fell into
the error propagated by Lynch (" Cambrensis Eversus 1 ') and Walsh, as
to their Danish construction. His words respecting the " Clogacha, the
74 THE ROUND TOWERS.
house" or round tower, erected in Ireland, and antiquarians
have anxiously sought for it ; but after a rigorous scrutiny
on several occasions, we have not been able to discover the
slightest vestige of any such structure in or about the ruins
of Annaghdown ; and the hypothesis that the foregoing no-
tice might refer to a square belfry like that at Clare- Galway
Abbey, is quite untenable. We think the difficulty can be
solved, by introducing to the reader or tourist the remains
of the beautiful round tower of Kilcoona, in the adjoining
name by which they are still called among the native Irish," are — " Now the
Irish does plainly owe its etymology to Clugga, a German-Saxon word,
that signifies a bell, from whence we also have borrowed our modern
word, a clock. This appellation also shows the end for which these
towers were built, — for belfries or steeples, where was hung a bell to call
the people to religious worship ; but the cavity or hollow space within
being so narrow, we may conclude the bell must needs be small, one of
a larger size not having room to ring out or turn round, which argues,
too, they are ancient ; for the larger bells are an invention of the later
times, and were not used in the earlier ages of the Church." — See his
" Discourse concerning the Danish Mounts, Forts, and Towers, in Ire-
land," which, although first published in 1725, and afterwards with Boate's
"Natural History of Ireland," was written in 1711, as appears from his
manuscript which was in my possession when I wrote his memoir in
the " Gallery of Illustrious Irishmen," No. XIII., which appeared in the
"Dublin University Magazine" in 1841. The passage from that memoir,
quoted by Dr. Petrie at page 10 of his great work upon "The Origin and
Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland," does not particularly refer to the
Cloictheach, but concerns the stele, or monumental stones or pillars of
sepulchral origin, and the " mounts erected over soldiers killed in battle."
AXXAGHDOWX CASTLE.
75
small parish of that name, and which has heretofore been un-
noticed by any writer on the subject. — See page 78.
Passing round the little creek to the south of the eccle-
siastical ruins, we reach the walled-in bounteous well of St.
Brendan, and gain access to the tall, square tower- castle
figured below, that forms so conspicuous and attractive an
object, both from the lake and
land sides all round. It is ex-
ceedingly well built, and, like
all the castellated remains in this
district, batters gradually at
the base. The entrance, on the
south face, is by a pointed-arch
doorway, strongly fortified by =af
all the defensive contrivances of
the period, and the character of
the warfare of the time. To the
left of the porch is a long flag-
roofed guard-room and square door. Two other doorways,
with angle-arched heads open, one into a small chamber, and
the other into the winding stone stairs that gave access to
the upper portion of the building. In the roof of the porch
is the usual poul-na-morrough, through which missiles might be
poured on those who had so far gained access to the inside.
In the thickness of the wall is a square tube leading from
the outer door-jamb, and which was probably used for com-
76 HOLY WELLS AND ANCIENT CASTLES.
municating with those beyond, like a modern acoustic appa-
ratus. Other flues of a like nature, but larger, exist in dif-
ferent parts of the building, and also passages formed in the
thickness of the walls. The corbels that supported the floors
and the chimney breasts are still in situ, and the garde robe
is on the north face. Mr. Parker, in his " Essay on the
Domestic Architecture of Ireland," has given an architectural
"elevation" of the interior of this castle, from a drawing by
Mr. Hills. In 1586 "Nicholas Lynch [held] Anaghcoyne."
To the south of the castle are the remains of an old house,
said to have been that of the diocesan ; and on the shore,
to the south-west, is St. Cormack's Well, where " stations" are
still occasionally performed on Sundays and Fridays. From
a point between these two last mentioned places, the best
view of the Annaghdown group of ruins may be obtained.
Besides those just described, this extensive parish con-
tains several other objects of antiquarian and historic interest;
in fact — to use the parlance employed in other writings —
" too numerous to mention," unless in a minute parochial
survey. It abounds in raths ; and among its ruins may be
mentioned — besides Drumgriffm, referred to at page 61 — the
tall, well-built Castle of Drumboo, with its adjoining Well of
St. Cyprian, Mace Castle, the old church of Killian, and the
circular-towered Castle Creevy ; but, except the latter, they
are either too far distant from the lake to be accessible to the
tourist, or not of sufficient interest to be dwelt upon.
THE WATER-HORSE OF CASTLE CREEVY. 77
To the north-west of the village of Correndulla, in this
parish, upon a scarped bare rock, surrounded by a dilapidated
village, stand the ruins of Creevy Castle, originally square,
with massive circular towers at the corners, somewhat like
that of Dunmo, upon the left bank of the Boyne ; portions
of two of these towers still remain, and are well worthy of
examination. Many legends attach to this old castle, and
many romantic tales of Creevy-ny-Bourke and her husband,
George Barry, are still related by the neighbouring peasantry
to somewhat the following effect : — This chieftainess and her
husband not agreeing, she sent him down to his fortress near
Castlebar. Now in the neighbourhood of the castle, in the
low, boggy district between it and Annaghdown, still exists
the enchanted lake, called Lough-a-Foor, where lamentations
are heard in the summer twilight, every seventh year. Out
of this lake, one summer's day, a young water-horse — the
Each or Coppul-uisge of Irish fairy tales — coining out to dis-
port itself, was captured by the lady's retainers, who car-
ried him off to the castle, where he was shut up in the stable
for some time ; but no one could be found to ride him. So
the lady had to send for her discarded spouse, who was a
celebrated equestrian. He came ; and some green moss was
tied on the eyes of the w T ater-horse, so that he might not
see where he was going. Off rode the horseman ; and, find-
ing the beast willing and fleet, was unwise enough to take
the covering from off its eyes, upon which it dashed for-
78 KILCOONA PARISH.
ward, and slew the rider, leaving portions of him at different
places, and the remainder at Leaght George, referred to at
page 60, where his leaght or stone monument was erected
that has given name to the locality. It then dashed back to
Lough-a-Foor, and, having plunged into the waves of its
native element, has not been seen or heard of since. These
legends respecting the Irish water-horse will be more parti-
cularly described in the Appendix upon the Zoology.
A deep bay borders the north-west margin of Annagh-
down parish, as far as the mills of Killroe, where the parish
of KlLCOONA abuts upon Lough Corrib. Passing eastward from
which, and crossing the main road from Galway to Headford,
by Ballinduff, the seat of Mr. Gunning, and near Cahermor-
ris, the residence of Mr. Crampton, through a country studded
with raths and cahers, we reach the little church and burial
ground of St. Coona, nearly in the centre of the enclosure
of which stands the "butt" of the Round Tower, which I am
inclined to believe is that referred to by the annalists as hav-
ing been erected in 1238 ; and the illustration of which, from
a photograph taken under the direction of Lord Dunraven, on
the occasion of our visit in September, 1866, is here afforded.
It stands upon a double plinth, and is now 8 feet high and
52 feet 9 inches in girth ; and when I say that it was origi-
nally one of the most beautifully built round towers in Ire-
land, I do not think I will be accused of exaggeration by
those who have given the subject consideration. The stone-.
THE ROUND TOWER OF KILCOONA.
711
some of which upon the lower course are 5 feet 2 inches
long, of a yellowish white limestone, are dressed, cambered
on the outside, and laid in regular courses ; and in some in-
stances, as may be seen in the engraving, cut into each other,
after the manner of the ancient Cyclopean masonry. No
vestige of the doorway remains, as the present top is below
the level of the usual site of that portion of a Cloictheach or
Irish round tower, but it was probably on the east face. The
interior of the tower is at present a solid mass of clay and
stones, from which some luxuriant ivy has thrown its pro-
jecting arms around the ruin, and at the same time added to
its picturesque effect. A few of the dressed stones of the
tower form the headstones to modern graves ; but Mr. Gun-
ning, the present enlightened proprietor of the property on
which it stands, has kindly undertaken to restore them to their
original sites, and thus preserve this ancient monument from
further destruction for centuries to come.
80 THE LAI EST ROUND TOWER.
We abstain from all discussion respecting the origin and
uses of the round towers of Ireland, as it remains for those
who dispute their Christian origin — now so generally ac-
cepted by the learned — to answer, in the first instance, the
as yet uncontradicted statements and arguments so forcibly
brought forward by the late Dr. Petrie. It is questionable
whether the round tower of Kilcoona was ever completed ;
but at present we are unable to adduce any fact, or offer any
argument thereon. Is it the veritable Cloightheach referred to
by the Four Masters, as having been erected at Annaghdown
sixty-six years after the Anglo-Norman invasion ? There
is every probability of such being the fact ; as Kilcoona
parish was in the diocese and immediate district of Annagh-
down, and about three miles in a direct line from the cathe-
dral. The single entry referring to it is very short and meagre,
and merely mentions the locality as Enagh-dun, and may
refer to the diocese or district where there are several
Enaghs or Annaghs giving names to townlands, as well as
to the locality of the abbey and nunnery upon the shores of
the lake.
The long, narrow parish of Kilcoona, running nearly north
and south between those of Annaghdown and Killeany, oc-
cupies about two miles of lake shore, and is crossed by the
high road between Galway and Headford.
It is remarkable that neither in the maps nor letters con-
nected with the Ordnance Survey, nor any work published
ST. COON A. Si
previous to this, has the round tower of Kilcoona been no-
ticed. A few paces to the north-east are the ruined walls
of a church, <o() feet 5 inches long, and 24 feet wide outside,
with the gables still standing ; but there are no carved stones
throughout the building that afford us any means of con-
jecturing its date. Archdall says : " Tipraid, Prince of Hy-
fiachria, granted the abbey of Killchunna to -St. Columb, who
placed St. Cuannan over it ; he was maternal brother to St.
Carthag, and was afterwards removed to the abbey of Lis-
more. This is now [1786] a parish church."
St. Cuanna, or Coona, who was born towards the close
of the sixth century, was a son of Midarnus, son of Dubh-
ratpa, son of Ennius, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the
great King of Ireland. His mother was Meda, or Finneda,
daughter of Fingen, a nobleman in the western district of
Munster, and whose origin was derived from the tribe and
territory of Corca-duibhne. She is said to have been the
mother of four distinguished men, the first of whom, Cartha-
gius, son of Findallus, was Abbot of Rathen, in Meath, and
afterwards Bishop of Lismore, in Munster. The second, St.
Cuanna, whose festival and natal day is the 4th of February,
f*om being a monk of Lismore, became " Abbot of the Mo-
nastery of Kill-chuanna, in the western district of Connaught."
He is said to have died about the year (550, and is reputed
to have written a chronicle of his own time, or Annals of
Ireland, up to A. D. 628 ; for Sir James Ware, in his "Writers
G
82 ANCIENT AND MODERN MISSIONARIES.
of Ireland," thus refers to him — " Cuan, or Cuanach, is an
author often quoted in the Annals of Ulster as low down as
the year 628, but not afterwards, by the name of the Book
of Cuan, or Cuanach, from whence I conjecture that he was
the author of a chronicle, and flourished about this time."
There were, however, other Coonas of a later date. In the
fragments of his history collected in the Acta Sanctorum many
prodigies are recorded, especially as to his manner of cross-
ing the lake upon a flat stone with his followers from Gno-
more ; but it is also stated that he collected around him, at
his church and monastery of Kilcoonagh, a great number of
learned Christian men, when the whole of this region, from
Clare-Galway to Cong, was fertile with piety, learning, and
art. Some members of the reformed churches may sneer at
the history of those good men, who, professing the pure faith
and doctrine of Patrick, " once delivered to the saints," went
forth as missionaries among the wild, half pagan natives of
the West, to Christianize, civilize, and instruct ; and who left
their names, and in many instances their monuments, in these
parishes. But sifting the marvellous from the probable, or
possible, and allowing for the age in which these facts or
traditions were written, it may possibly appear that those
missionaries were as pure in their lives, as unselfish, as scrip-
tural in their doctrine, and as useful in their generation as
those sent out at immense expense in our own days to Chris-
tianize the Pagan, the Mahometan, or the Buddhist.
BALLINDUFF CASTLE AND THE BULL'S TRACK. 83
The local tradition is to the effect, that Saints Eany and
Fursoeus, who gave names to the adjoining parishes, were
sons of Meda, and brothers of Cuanna, but the hagiology is
is not clear upon the subject. The saint's well, called Dab-
hach Chuana, formerly much frequented by pilgrims, lies in
the adjacent townland of Knockreen.
Within Mr. Gunning's demesne of BallindufT stands an old
castle of the Skerritts, where a fierce contest took place in
1469 between Clanricarde and O'Donnell ; and in 1586 it
was held by " Mac Walter, called Thomas M'Henry." Not
far distant, in the wood by the roadside, is shown a stone
bearing the footprint of a bull, concerning which there are
many legends afloat.*
* The tale is by popular tradition brought down to a late date, when
Donnall Cam, who was cowherd to the lord of the neighbouring castle, and
one evening saw a strange bull visiting one of his cows. It left its track in
the rock, where it is still seen ; and the herd having related the circum-
stance to his master, he was desired to keep the " beastings " for him ;
but, tasting some of them himself, he became a prophet or soothsayer, or
was endowed with the gift of second sight. According to another version,
this bull and cow were the first seen in that part of the country. This
story adds another to the many legendary tales respecting cattle in Ire-
land See the Author's " Essay on the Unmanufactured Animal Remains
in Ireland," and also that upon the " Ancient Oxen of Ireland," in the
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.
With reference to Castle Creevy, referred to at page 77, the following
version of the legend has been furnished me : — George Barry was the son
of the Widow Burke, who had a farm convenient to Lough Afoor, the
land of Avhich she had well cultivated. When the corn grew up, it was
terribly damaged every night, although no one knew what ate it. The
G 2
84 PARISH OF KILLEANEY.
To the north of Annaghdown, and the west of Kilcoona,
is the parish of KlLLEANEY, which, although not large, occu-
pies a considerable extent of the lake's margin. It derives
its name from Eidhne, or Eaney (a very common name for-
merly in the West), who, as already stated, is said to have
been the brother of Coona and Fursseus ; but, after investi-
gating the subject, O'Donovan has left the following record: —
" This St. Einne is the famous Endeus of Aranmore." The
parish is sometimes called Clocli-an-Uabliair (pronounced
Clough-an-our), "The Stone of Pride," which, with the adjoin-
ing castle of the same name, can be seen on the roadside,
between Clare-Galway and Headford ; and there is a tradition
of a celebrated witch, called Cailleach-an- Uabhair, " The Hag
of Pride," who cast this stone hither from a distant hill, and
left the marks of her thumb and three fingers upon it.* It
field was watched ; and then, in the dead of night, a number of horses
were seen to rise out of the lake, and come to graze on the young corn.
The watchers captured one of them, which remained at Castle Creevy
for a year and a day, until taken out to hunt by the young master ; and,
having got a glimpse of its native element, it became furious, and per-
petrated the catastrophe referred to in the text. Shortly afterwards a
female was seen rising out of the lake, who told the neighbours that the
horse was enchanted ; and that, if it had been kept one day longer in con-
finement, the enchantment would have ceased.
* These ancient stone markings, cups, foot and finger prints, circles,
lozenges, volutes, &c, such as I figured and described many years ago
upon the monuments of the Boyne, are now receiving the attention they
deserve ; and the subject has lately been investigated with great care by
Sir James Y. Simpson, Bart., of Edinburgh, in his beautiful work upon
• Archaic Sculptures," just published.
HEADFORD. 85
lies a few paces to the south of the castle. The old church
and saints well are to the south-east of the castle, but present
no features of interest. Near this castle passes a very "tempt-
ing" stream for the angler, which carries off the water from
Doolough, and some of the eastern turloghs, and delivers it-
self into a deep adjoining bay of Lough Corrib.
At the northern extremity of this parish, and on the high
road from Galway to Cong, although not within the paro-
chial boundary, stands the little town of Headford, still called
in Irish Ath-Cuinn, tc The Head of the Ford," which contained
993 inhabitants in 1861. Beside it is the beautiful residence
and extensive demesne of R. M. St. George, Esq.
Near the shore, opposite Lee's Island, which the steamer
passes on the starboard side, there is an ancient stone fort
called Caher-Aidne, and, like all the other parishes along the
lake, numerous caves, lisseens, raths, and cairns can be seen
therein. The island contains 4-7J acres, and was in former
days a scene, as well as the cause, of a memorable dispute be-
tween the O'Flahertys and the O'Lees.
We now pass between the parishes of Cargin and Killannin,
and approach the Ferry of Knock, where the lake narrows
to about a quarter of a mile in width. This was formerly
the chief passage between Iar Connaught and Connemara, on
the south-west ; and the barony of Clare, in Galway, and the
Mayo side of the lake, on the north-east. Upon the northern
side there is a low shrubby growth of hazel, giving it the name
80 KYLEBEG AND KNOCK FERRY.
of Kylcbeg, or " the little wood ;" and at the pier here the
steamer stops for a short time. It is in the parish of Cargin,
which will occupy our attention in the next chapter. The
transit here was formerly effected by a large flat-bottomed boat
or float, capable of holding carriages and cattle ; but foot pas-
sengers were taken across in small boats. It has been proposed
to construct a causeway and bridge at this point, and such
would certainly be a great convenience to the counties of
Mayo and Galway on either side of the lake ; but at the same
time it is fair to add, that it should be an imperial, or at
least a national, not a local undertaking. There are also some
engineering objections to the proposed site ; but these might
be got rid of by choosing a better one, a little to the north-
west. Should, however, the distress which, it is said, now
threatens West Connaught and Connamara, extend, no more
useful public work could be desired for this district.
CHAPTER V.
KYLEBEG TO INCHIQUUST.
CARGIN PARISH, CHURCH, AND CASTLE. KILLEENS. INISCREAWA. ANNALS
OF LOUGH CORRIB. IRISH PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE.
CAHERGAL. CLYDAGH. ELLLURSA PARISH. HISTORY OF ST. FURSA.
INCHIQUIN. CASTLE OF ANNAKEEN. CAIRNS. GIANTS' GRATES.
CHURCH OF ST. FURSA. EARLY IRISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. ROSS-
ERRILLY. THE LOCUST PLAGUE. MOYNE CASTLE. THE BLACK RIVER.
The parish of Cargin, although small in extent, is one of
great interest in an historic and pictorial point of view. It
extends eastwards between that of Killeany, on the south-
east, and Killursa, on the north-west, over a space about
three miles long, and one broad ; but, owing to the wooded
promontories of Kylebeg and Clydagh, its shore margin is of
much greater extent ; and between these projections, a deep
bay passes inwards for about three quarters of a mile.
The old church of this parish is of no great interest or
antiquity, and neither to it nor to this parish itself is the
term "Kill" applied, but the ruin is called Seipid-a- Cargin,
"The Chapel of Cargin," and in all probability it was a
chapel of ease to some of the saints' churches in the neigh-
bouring parishes. Around it are the remains of a circular
rath, and beside it a Killeeir, or children's burial ground, of
88
CARGIN CASTLE.
which class of cemetery there are great numbers in the West,
but especially along the shores of Loughs Corrib and Mask.*
The ruined Castle of Cargin, here presented, stands on an
eminence at the extremity of the little bay, and, with the ad-
joining islet, helps to form, with its ivy-mantled walls, a very
picturesque group when viewed from the steamer's deck.
Thanks to the good taste of the present proprietor, the con-
dition of this castle forms a striking contrast with that of
the great majority of ancient castles along our route, which
* Killeen, a "little church"— applied to diminutive graveyards, nearly
always used for children, and generally for those -who have died unbap-
tized, respecting which many curious popular superstitions are still alcat
in the minds of the ignorant.
INISCREAWA.
89
for the most part are used as barns, stables, or cowhouses.
There is no history, nor are there any legends attaching to
this ancient castle, which measures externally 40 feet by 30.*
In the little bay in front stands lniscreawa, or "wild-
garlic Isle," where, says O'Flaherty, in his " West Con-
naught," " the walls and high ditch of a w T ell-fortified place
are still extant, and encompass almost the whole island.
Of this isle Macamh lniscreawa, a memorable antient magi-
cian, as they say, had his denomination. Anno 1225, the
Lord Justice of Ireland, coming into the port of lniscreawa,
caused Odo O'Flaherty, Lord of West Connaught, to deliver
that island, Kirke Island, and all the boats of Lough Orbsen,
into the hands of Odo O'Connor, King of Connaught (Ca-
thald Redfist's son), for assurance of his fidelity."
The great uncemented Cyclopean stone fort to which this ex-
* In the State Paper styled " The Division of Connaught," already
referred to at page 49, it is said that in 1586 William Gaynard held the
Castle of Carigin ; Mac Eeamon Clcghenwoyr ; Moyler Mae Reamon, An-
aghkyne ; Tybbot Lyogh, Loscananon ; UUig Eogh, Drum griffin ; "Walter
fitz-Ab, fitz-Ed., Masse;" and M>Walter's sept, Cahrinorite ; all of which
are referred to in this work.
90 ANNALS OF LOUGH ORBSEN.
tract refers still encircles the brow of the little island, as shown
in the foreging illustration, for which, as well as that of Cargin
Castle, the author is indebted to Miss E. Lynch-Staunton ; but
the scrubby brushwood around it partially obscures the masonry,
which stands over a deep trench or fosse, that must have ren-
dered its capture a matter of much difficulty before the general
introduction of fire arms. In all probability it served like a
crannoge to guard Cargin Castle, or as a safe refuge for the
persons and valuables of its inmates, or those of the surround-
ing country. There can, however, be no doubt that this struc-
ture belongs to the days of the unmortared duns, cahers, and
cashels long prior to the date of the Anglo-Norman invasion.
The walls average 6 feet thick, and are still 10 J feet high ;
but the stones of which they are composed, owing in all
probability to the fact of their having been carried from the
neighbouring mainland, are of comparatively small size. They
enclose an oval space of 144 yards in circumference ; and the
doorway is on the east or land side, where the ditch is level
to afford means of access. The present name of the island on
the Ordnance Map is Illaun-Carbery, because a fanatic named
Carbery lived for many years during the last century in a
hut he built for himself within the enclosure.
To the foregoing notice of the depredations upon Lough
Corrib in early times may be added the following, A. D. 929: —
" The Danes of Limerick took possession of Lough Orbsen,
and pillaged its islands." A. D. 1061 the OTlahertys of the
adjoining territory ofMagh Scola, already referred to at page
ANCIENT IRISH ARCHITECTURE. 91
19, took possession of Lough Orbsen, and expelled Hugh
O'Conor ; and in 1224, after the death of Cathal Crove-
dearg, the red-handed son of King Turlough, and during the
contentions between the O'Conors of Connaught, Hugh, the
son of Cathal, compelled the 'Flaherty s to deliver up this
island, as referred to in the foregoing extract.
In 1233 Felim O'Conor, King of Connaught, " demolished
the castles of Kirk Island, Galway, Hag Island, and Dono-
man." Again, " in 1256 Walter De Burgo, Lord of Con-
naught, and first Earl of Ulster, marched against Roderick
'Flaherty, plundered the territories of Gnomore and Gno-
beg, west of Lough Orbsen, and took possession of the lake,
its islands and castles. These he fortified, and by that means
considerably increased the power of the English in Connaught."
In all probability it was at this period, and from thence up
to 1450, that the great majority of the De Burgo castles in
this western district were built or remodelled.
As this ancient fortress of Iniscreawa is the first of its
class to which the visitor or the reader has been introduced,
a word respecting the style of architecture of its period may
not be out of place. The ancient architectural remains which
occur in our route are of two classes — Pao-an and Christian.
The former are chiefly monumental, sepulchral, and military,
or that form of building that served for domestic and defen-
sive purposes, and most of them belong to the prehistoric period ;
so that of the precise date of their erection, or even the many
92 THE DANES.
centuries included in the cycle during which they were con-
structed, we have no more means of judging than we have of
those of Stonehenge, or of similar structures elsewhere through-
out the world. A few are referred to in history, but the
chronology of the annalists as to the period of their construc-
tion is questionable. The space of time over which they
extend must have been very great, but they are nearly all of
the same type : cairn, circle, cashel, cave, cloughaun, and
pillar stone, are but repetitions of the same idea, and show
no material advance, nor any progress towards the develop-
ment of a higher order of art, or greater aptitude of purpose
in their construction, from century to century. They were all
built without mortar or cement, and usually of very large
blocks of stone. That some of them were occupied and de-
fended, even after the Anglo-Norman invasion, there can be
no doubt, as such circumstances are stated in history. The
earthen raths and lisses are in a like category. The opinion
as to the Danish origin of these ancient structures, which has
so long obtained credence in this country that it has become
a " popular superstition," is beginning to fade ; and will in
time, as investigation extends and knowledge increases, be
obliterated.* If by " Danes " are meant the very early fair-
complexioned Tuatha de Danann colonists, who, it is said,
came back to us from the north of Europe, the association
* See the Author's "The Beauties of the Boyne," 2nd edition, p. 70.
TWELFTH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE. 93
may be congruous ; but if by the Danes is implied the Norse-
men, who commenced their invasions in the middle of the ninth
century, and held sway in parts of Ireland until conquered at
Clontarf, it is an egregious mistake.
Of the latter, or Christian edifices, we have the ruins of
the ancient castles, or fortified dwellings, extending from the
twelfth to the seventeenth century, and some few of the mo-
dern mansions of the present time ; but the objects of most
interest in this class are the ecclesiastical remains of oratories,
churches, abbeys, convents, monasteries, crosses, and monu-
mental stones, &c. ; and to many of these we are able, either
from an examination of their architecture, or from absolute
history, to assign a date. Of late it has become the fashion
to ignore early Irish architecture, and assign a twelfth century
date, and a Norman origin to every carved, moulded, punched,
or chiselled stone found in connexion with our ecclesiastical
and Christian monuments. That there was a very wide-spread
and improved taste in ecclesiastical architecture and stone de-
coration throughout North-western Europe from the year 1000
to 1200, and that it was chiefly exhibited in Normandy, is ad-
mitted : and that that taste found its way into Ireland, and
subsequently influenced artistic design here, is equally true.
But so long as the elaborately decorated doors and sculptured
effigies on some of our round towers, and the sculptured crosses
at Monasterboice, Cashel, Clonmacnoise, Kells, and other
places, some of them bearing inscriptions denoting the date of
their erection, remain ; and so long as we possess the early
94 EARLY IRISH ART.
churches of Raheen, Killaloe, Cormac's Chapel at Cashel, and
the church at Irmiscaltra, which it is said was remodelled by
Brian Boromhe in the early part of the eleventh century ; and
while there are before us the sculptures on Devenish Tower, Do-
noghmore, and (very probably), those in the Saint's Church at
Inchangoill ; and until we find a counterpart, or even the crud-
est idea elsewhere, of that peculiar Irish tracery which adorns
same of our early churches, crosses, tombs, shrines, and crosiers,
&c, it may be assumed that during the three centuries prece-
ding 1172 we had in Ireland men with taste and wealth to pay
for, artists capable of designing, and tradesmen competent to
the task of producing such works, in either stone, metal, or
enamel. Our still remaining specimens of early Irish art afford
irrefragable proofs of such culture ; and until it is proved that
the pre-Christian antiques in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy are of foreign origin ; or until those " twelfth-cen-
tury" advocates have controverted the foregoing statements, it
is unnecessary to descant further on the subject in a work
merely intended to direct the steps of the tourist through a
region hitherto but scantily explored, and to rescue from ob-
livion, or preserve from desecration, some of the historic
monuments of the country.
About two miles east of the lake, in this parish, stands
Cahergal, or " Whitefort," one of the finest specimens of ancient
military architecture on the mainland of Ireland, and which can
easily be reached by the roads leading from Kylebeg or Cly-
dagh to Ileadford. From its colour it gives its English name
CAHERGAL.
95
to the townland, as, for similar reasons, we meet with the names
of Roundfort and Darkfort, &c, in other localities.
This magnificent circular Cyclopean building, a portion of
the external face of which is well shown in the subjoined illus-
tration, encloses a space of 137 feet in diameter ; and its massive
walls of unhewn stone, of a whitish hue, from the lichens cover-
ing them, are 9 feet 4 inches thick, and, although lowered in
many places, still average 7 feet 7 inches high.
The entrance on the south-eastern side, over the road
leading to a farm house, is 7 feet 6 inches wide ; its external
jambs, measuring 5 feet 8 inches over ground, are each 5 feet
broad, and 21 inches thick. Inside, on the south-east, is a
flight of three massive steps, figured on the next page, which
probably led to a parapet, as at Stague fort, in Kerry. Within
the enclosure there are the remains of several intersecting walls :
but, as the space is grass-grown, it is difficult to say whether
96
CAHERGAL.
they are the ruins of Clouyhaunes,* or the top structures of
caves, of the existence of which there is a tradition.
Of this class of de-
fensive building, erect-
ed, in all probability,
in the days of the
Belgic and Danann co-
lonization, like those
in the western Isles
of Aran, no question
need be asked the
peasant ; for his only reply will be, " Ogh, sure, it was rned
by the giants in ancient times, or maybe by the Danes ; any-
way it's there as long as I remember, or my father afore me,
or any of the ould people about." Fairy occupation is never
associated with these structures, although every green fort,
rath, and lisheen (probably of earlier origin), is still in the
imagination and traditional folk lore of our remaining rural
population inhabited by " the good people."
In the valley to the south of this great caher (which term
is fully explained by this structure), there is said to have
* Cloughaunes are small unccmented, or dry-wall huts, generally cir-
cular or oval in shape, and having their domed stone roofs constructed
with flags gradually projecting inwards like those of some of the Pyra-
mids—and the tumuli of Newgrange and Dowth, &c. They abound in
the Aran Isles, and in Kerry See Mr. I)u Noyer's account of the city of
Fahiri, and the author's Catalogue of Antiquities in the Royal Irish
Academy, &c.
( LYDAGH.
97
existed two similar stone works, the sites of which are pointed
out ; and it is reported that one of them afforded building
materials for the barracks of Headford, some years ago.
To return to our itinerary — on the northern shore of the
little bay containing Iniscreawa, and turning round by the
south-east margin of the lake, with a sloping green sward
running down to the water's edge, and surrounded by well-
grown timber, and tastefully laid out pleasure grounds, stands
Clydagh, the handsome residence of George Lynch-Staunton,
Esq., of which the subjoined woodcut, taken from a photo-
graph, is a faithful representation.
- ^- : ^r*^ti'^**J , =^i
Mr. Lynch-Staunton descends from the ancient Anglo-
Norman family of De Staunton, of whom Sir Malger was the
head in 1129. The present proprietor of Clydagh assumed
(under the will of his relative, Sir G. Staunton, Bart.), the
name of Staunton, in addition to that of Lynch, in 1859.
TVe read, that " Among the Englyshe greate rebelles of
H
98 KILLURSA PARISH.
Connaught in 1515 were Syr Myles Staunton's sonnes." Some
of the Stonduns of Mayo, after the death of Edmund Burke,
in 1338, were so much ashamed of the transaction, that they
assumed the name of Mac Evilly — Mac a Mhilid, " Son of
the Knight."*
A part of the extensive demesne of Mr. St. George, of
Headford, already referred to at p. 85, is within this parish ;
and to the west of the Gal way road, near where it joins that
of Killursa, may be seen a remarkable ancient enclosure, with
several standing stones circling the brow of a small hill, and
called Lisheennabasty, or the " little fort of the serpent," or
worm.t
KlLLURSA — properly Kill-Fursa, in commemoration of Fur-
sseus, a celebrated Irish saint and traveller — margins Lough
Corrib, in continuation of Cargin, on the south ; and forms
the terminal parish of the barony of Clare, and county of Gal-
way, on its eastern shore. Its northern boundary is the Owen-
duff, or " Black Eiver," which, passing under ground below
Shrule, rises again to the surface to the east of the castle of
* See description of Oilean-an-Iarla in Lough Mask ; also Hardiman's
Notes to O'Flaherty's " H-Iar Connaught," p. 47.
f Peast, "a worm, 1 ' serpent, or beast, like the Latin bestia, is a term
that frequently enters into topographical names in Ireland. Worm holes —
poul na peasti — are common, and applied to deep caverns with water at
bottom. Although St. Patrick " gave the frogs and toads a twist, and
banished all the varmin," there are still traditions of water serpents in
abundance ; but, like the great sea serpent, these animals have not been
seen of late.
ST. FUBSA. 99
Moyne, and, running by the ruins of Ross, enters the lake
about a mile beyond the castle of Annakeen. Irish hagio-
logy abounds with notices of the Christian celebrities of this
district in the sixth and seventh centuries. In the large Island
of Inchiquin, belonging to this parish, and now on our star-
board quarter, it is stated that St. Brendan founded a religious
establishment, which was afterwards increased by St. Meldan,
of the Hua-Cuinn family, from whom the Island of Inch-in-
Cuinn took its name. Fintan, King of Munster, with his Queen,
Gelgies, daughter of the King of Connaught, in consequence
of some troubles in his province, fled to Lough Orbsen, and
was hospitably entertained by his relative, Brendan ; and while
residing with him in his Cella Hospitum at Rathmath, in Inchi-
quin, had a son, who was christened Fursa, or Fursa3us. He
flourished between A. D. 584 and 652, and his festival is kept
on the 16th of January ; but several other days are given
in Irish ecclesiastical writings for that event. He is said tra-
ditionally to have had two brothers, Eidne or Ainey, and
Coona, who have given names to the adjoining parishes of
Killeany and Kilcoona, as stated at page 83.
Killursa is now united with Car gin, and also with Killannin
on the opposite shore of the lake, in the Roman Catholic Union
of Headford, at present occupied by the Rev. Peter Conway,
to whose zeal and energy his parishioners are indebted for
the erection of St. Mary's at Headford, one of the handsomest
rural chapels in Ireland, built at a cost of about £4000, chiefly
collected in America.
H 2
loo
AN N AKEEN ( IASTLE .
The steamer, in her course along the lake, approaches suffi-
ciently near this parish to give us a good view of the castle of
Annakeen, especially in the down trip ; as, passing upwards, a
knoll of land projecting into the lake obscures the prospect.
Landing in a small bay, guarded on the north by the little
bluff island of Bull's Eye, now quite green, but the major
portion of which is probably artificial, and which, in all like-
lihood, occupied towards the adjoining castle the same relation,
as regards defence and security, which Iniscreawa did with re-
spect to the castle of Cargin (see page 89), we stand upon the
parish of Killursa ; and a few paces bring us to the walls of
this very ancient castle, figured in the preceding cut, taken
from a photograph by Mr. O'Reilly, kindly supplied by the
Rev. Mr. Conway.
ANNAKEEN CASTLE. 101
It is a square keep, the outer walls of which are perfect,
except upon the north side. That upon the lake or west side
is 46 feet long ; and that on the south, here represented, is
50 feet. There are also some remains of the outer enclosure,
and the whole is surrounded by a very beautiful park of the
finest land, ornamented with some aged ash. Of all the castles
surrounding Lough Corrib, this would appear from its masonry
to be the oldest-; for, although it has not been dilapidated for
building purposes, it is not possible to find in or around it a
single dressed stone of any description ! the quoins, door-
ways, and window openings being, with the walls, both within
and without, all formed of undressed stone. Perhaps there is
not in the British Isles a similar example of such admirably
constructed masonry of its class and period. At the north-
west corner there is a square tower, and probably a similar
one existed on the north-east. All the outer walls of this
structure are six feet thick, and contain passages leading to the
upper apartments and the parapet. Some of the arches of the
windows and doors are circular, and others pointed ; but all
ingeniously constructed with stones to which a hammer or chisel
was never applied — in like manner as in the arch of the east
window in the beautiful old church of Cross, and as we find in
other localities where the great abundance and variety in form
of the surrounding limestone afforded ample materials for any
description of building, and the ingenuity of the artists was
equal to the task of rendering them subservient to architec-
10-2 ANNAKEEN CASTLE.
tural purposes. Even to the present day, every man in this
and the adjoining limestone districts is more or less a ma-
son.
Among the structural peculiarities of this castle is that of
having upon the outer face of the ground story small, low,
arched apertures leading into guard rooms or sentry cells,
but in other instances communicating with the walled passages
above. The marking of the wattled centring upon which
the arches were laid, so many centuries ago, shows the great
strength of the mortar used at the time of their erection ; for
it is as hard and sharp as when the basket-work, on which
it was raised, was removed ; and in the upper apartment of
the north-west tower the roof is perfectly flat.
As there is no stone now remaining at Annakeen to afford
us a clue to the date of its erection, neither is there any his-
tory which throws much light upon the subject. That, how-
ever, it was a place of note in very early times, may be
learned from the fact that in 1324 Sir William, or Ulick De
Burgh, the first Mac William Ouehter, son of Sir William the
Grey, and the progenitor of the Glan-Eickard, was called " Ul-
cus de Anaghkeen ;" and certainly the architecture of the castle
may with safety be ascribed to a date live and a half centu-
ries ago.*
* In 1586 Nicholas Lynch was possessed of the Castle of "Annaghcoyne ;"
and when, in 1619, .lames I. confirmed the possession of the Castle Hackel
estate to the Burkes of that place, as was done to all Irish proprietors who
THE GIANT'S GRAVE. 103
In the immediate vicinity stands the unfinished residence
of B. O'Flaherty, Esq., of Galway ; but the lord of the soil
is Captain Carter, whose family once possessed the greater
portion of the lands in this locality, and the unfinished house
of one of whose ancestors, called by the country people Teach
Carter, may be seen on the lake shore opposite Inchiquin.
Here, as elsewhere throughout Ireland, the ruins are grouped
with others of different eras and uses. A little to the east of
the old castle there are the vestiges of the church and burial
ground of St. Cronin ; and a short distance to the north-east
thereof a considerable cairn, which may be seen from the lake,
crowns an eminence in a neighbouring field; while, following
the inland road, we soon arrive at Doonaun Fort and Eynagh
graveyard, in the townland of Carrowakil, on the south of the
road opposite which there is one of those early Pagan structures
known as " giants' graves," and here significantly called by
the people Leabliy-an-Fear-mor — the bed or "grave of the big
man." The fort has recently been in great part obliterated,
although a few of the lar^e flagstones are still standing; and,
as it is asserted that human bones of large dimensions were
found in it, I may here remark that no human bones of a
gigantic size were ever found in an Irish burial place, either
ancient or modern. The Leabhy crowns a little mammillary
surrendered their estates for the purpose of getting a new title to them, and
erected the same, the Manor of Castle Hacket, the castle and lands of
Annakeen are included in the list of lands forming it.
104 KILLURSA CHURCH.
elevation, and consists of an oblong enclosure, running nearly
cast and west, and having at the eastern end several of the
large upright flagstones still remaining. These " giants' graves"
are not uncommon, although not of such frequent occurrence
as the stone circles, the inner enclosure of which originally
supported the hive-shaped domes.
Passing beside Clover Hill in an easterly direction, by
St. Kieran's Well, and through a group of ancient forts and
raths, we reach the extensive graveyard and ruined church
of Killursa, erroneously styled on the Ordnance Map Kilda-
ree, from the neighbouring townland of that name, although
O'Donovan, in his letters, has given a distinct description of
it, as well as a drawing of the western doorway, which forms
a remarkable feature of this ruin. All the walls are still
standing, although considerably dilapidated ; it was of the
Daimhlaig-mor class of church, and measures 70 feet 6 inches,
by 24 feet on the outside. The southern doorway is a pointed
arch ; and the east window, which, compared with the extent
of the building, is of unusual height, was a fine specimen of
pointed Gothic architecture, and was probably erected in the
sixteenth century ; it is 11 feet 6 inches high, and 3 feet
4 inches in the clear. The well-cut stone mullions still re-
main ; but the outer spaces were built up years ago, when,
perhaps, the poverty or persecution of the parishioners pre-
vented its repair. A cross wall cuts off 9 feet 4 inches of
the western end, which portion was probably occupied in
THE SQUARE-HEADED DOORWAY. 105
later times by the officiating priest or friar. A similar wall
exists in the little church of Ross Hill, at Lough Mask.
The characteristic feature of this church is the small square-
headed sloping-jambed doorway, near the southern angle of
the western gable, of the great antiquity of which there can
be no doubt ; and which is probably a remnant of the early
church founded here by St. Fursa, when, disgusted with the
state of affairs at Inchiquin, he came over to the mainland,
and established a religious house in this parish. The dimen-
sions of this doorway are — 5 feet 4 inches in height, 2 feet
wide at top, and 2 feet 5 inches at the bottom. Nearly all the
stones of its sides occupy the entire thickness of the wall,
which here measures 2 feet, and are undressed on the ends ;
but upon the inside they are all perfectly smooth, as if they had
been first put in their places in a rough state, and were then
sawn or rubbed down into their present condition. The lintel,
which is a rough, unhewn, weather-worn flag, 3 feet 8 inches
long, does not appear to have been part of the original struc-
ture, and is quite incongruous with the rest of the doorway,
in openings of which class the lintel is generally of great size
and thickness. The probability is that, in the original church,
this doorway stood in the centre of the west gable ; and that
when, in the process of centuries, the present church was re-
constructed on the site of the old, it was enlarged towards
the north, as well as in length, the doorway being left in
situ, and the present lintel placed upon it.
10(3 ANCIENT LRISH LIFE AND MANNERS.
These square-headed, so-called Cyclopean doorways, with
sloping sides, are characteristic of our very early Irish churches ;
although, as in the case of that at Inishmain, on Lough Mask,
they are occasionally associated with the florid architecture of
a much more recent period, and evidently of foreign intro-
duction. They abound in the Lough Corrib district, as at
Kilcathail, below Knockdoe,* Kilfraughaun, Inishmain, Ross
Hill, Inchangoill, and Killannin.
There are no materials whereby we can reproduce a pic-
ture of Irish public or domestic architecture beyond that of
the dun, cash el, cave, fort, caher, or cloughaun, the togher,
pillar stone, Druidical religious circle, the cromleach, or the
sepulchral monument, at the time when St. Patrick served as a
bondsman or swine feeder to Milchu, one of the chieftains
of Dalaradia, in the beginning of the fifth century. The peo-
ple worshipped in the open air, under the spreading oak,
around the stone enclosure, or beside the hallowed well ;
the laws were administered by the Brehon from the fort
or rath ; the kings and chieftains were inaugurated stand-
ing upon, or beside, the consecrating stone ; the games and
festive meetings were all outdoor transactions ; the great as-
* Kilcathail, the church of St. Cathaldus, stands by the road-side, about
four miles from Clare- Galway, on the way to Tuam. — See " H-Iar Con-
naught," p. 369. O'Donovan has given a drawing of it in his Ordnance
Letters on Galway. By an oversight the window in Annaghdown, figured
and described at p. 72, is stated to be 8 feet high. It is 6 feet 8 inches
high, and 2 feet 10 inches wide in the clear of the opening.
EARLY CHURCH -ARCHITECTURE. 107
semblies were held in wattled halls ; and the people lived in
stone-roofed houses, caves, cabins made of tempered clay, or
wattled structures, either on the mainland, or in crannoges
or lacustrine habitations, and were buried beneath the cairn
or tumulus, &c. Thus, when the early Christian missionaries,
in the days of Pelagius and Patricius, wished to erect a
church in Erinn, the domestic cloughaun and the wattled
hut furnished the types from whence the stone oratory or
monastic cell, and the wooden Duirteach were derived —
partly church, and partly dwelling-house for the officiating
cleric — as at Gallerus, Kells, and Kilfrughaun.
There are, however, special characteristics by which such
primitive Irish or Pelasgic churches as now exist may be dis-
tinguished. These features may be summed up by size, form
of masonry, and the shape and position of their doors and
windows. In size they vary from 15 to 35 feet long, by from
6 to 15 broad. The smallest, as well as the most beautiful
structure of this class, is that of Teampull Benan, standing on
the height over Killeaney, in Aranmore, and which is but
15 feet long on the outside. The walls of these little churches
are generally constructed of large stones, not laid in courses,
nor yet what is termed Cyclopean, but irregularly, as the ma-
terial offered to hand; and sometimes at the angles, in that
description of work called " long and short," such as distin-
guish the early Saxon churches of Britain. Except on the
inside of the door jambs, or the reveals and arches of win-
dows, they seldom bear the mark of a tool.
108 THE PRIMITIVE HUSH CHURCH.
Although they may be considered the first mortared build-
ings in Ireland, there is at present very little appearance of
such externally. The mortar of that period, of which the lime
is said to have been so good from having been burned with
charcoal, was evidently used in a semi-fluid state, and perhaps
poured in as a grouting. In position these little churches
are not always placed due east and west ; and St. Benan's
Church (just referred to) stands north and south; but there
the altar occupies a position in the north-east angle, and
has over it, facing the east, the only window in the church.
It is thought that the great church builder, the Gobaun Saer,
and his pupils, in laying out these churches, were guided by
the sun's rising and setting at the time of the year in which
the building was commenced.
The windows are comparatively small, but usually splayed,
and either circular-headed or rectilineally pointed ; the former
was often cut out of a single stone ; and the latter, which was
that most usually employed at the east end, was constructed
of two stones meeting at an angle. A divided or many-lighted
window is unknown in these early churches, which are totally
devoid of architectural ornamentation, or of carving, with the
rare exception of a cross or a small human figure in relief,
as at the little church of Killarsagh, in the parish of Cong,
described at page 158. Some doors were surrounded with
projecting, and others with recessed bands.
The chief distinguishing mark of these early churches is,
THE PRIMITIVE IRISH CHURCH. 109
however, the doorway, with inclining jambs, which invariably
occupies the centre of the west gable, and is always square-
headed ; the lintel, from 4 to 5 feet long, being usually *very
massive, and in several instances covering the entire thick-
ness of the opening. This doorway is, on an average, 5 feet
6 inches high. The inclining sides, in the Egyptian fashion,
leave the opening about 2 feet 3 inches above, and 2 feet
8 inches below, or in that proportion. These square, semicir-
cular, and angle-headed openings, are likewise found in some
of our oldest round towers, with the erection of which struc-
tures they were probably contemporaneous, and in some in-
stances antecedent to.
It is very questionable whether the most ancient of our
Irish small churches were divided into nave and chancel ; and
it will still require careful and extended research to determine
when the latter was added ; and, where it exists, whether it
formed part of the original plan of the building, or was added
subsequently, say in the eighth or ninth century. Almost in-
variably the little chancel is narrowed about 2 feet on each
side. It is also questionable whether these divisions in the
plan of the church necessitated the erection of a choir arch,
and it remains to be shown that any such structure in Ireland
is older than the ninth century-
Some of these JDaimhliags, or primitive " stone churches,"
called by the people Teampulh, were roofed with the same
material, as may be seen in the groovings for the flags in se-
110 IRISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE.
veral of their high-pitched gables ; but others were covered
with wood, and perhaps thatch.
We have a starting point for this early church architecture
in the Irish Christian era, towards the end of the fifth century ;
but when it ended, or was modified by the introduction of the
pointed or Gothic style of doors and windows, or the more
florid style known as Norman, it is difficult to determine. John
O'Donovan — no mean antiquary, and whose local knowledge,
acquired by his personal examination of nearly every ancient
church in the north and west of Ireland, while engaged upon
the Ordnance Survey, was unsurpassed — held that this form
of ecclesiastical building was maintained until the tenth cen-
tury, if not later.* On the other hand, our great ecclesiologist,
Dr. Petrie, was of opinion that in and after the seventh cen-
tury a Romanesque style of building, with decorated semi-
circular arches, and ornamented windows and doors, some ol
the latter being placed in the north and south walls, was
gradually introduced, as in the Domhnach, or Teampull mor,
"the big church," with its choir arch and decorated stone
work. This seems the most probable ; but more modern
authorities hold, as already stated, that all decorated or or-
* Mr. Wilkinson, in his valuable work upon " Practical Geology and
Ancient Architecture of Ireland," published in 1845, says that the pointed
arch was in Ireland practically applied before the introduction of the pointed
style through England ; and that it resulted from a progressive improve-
ment in constructive arrangements. — See p. 140.
THE DAIMLIAG AND THE DUIRTEACH. Ill
namented stone work in our churches, is of " twelfth-cen-
tury origin." It is more than probable that the transition
from the severe Pelasgic style through the Romanesque into
the Eoman Gothic was gradual.* In addition to the Daim-
liag, or stone church, or the Domhnach-mor, or Cathedral,
we had, in very early times, wooden ecclesiastical structures,
used either as oratories or penitentiaries, and probably also
employed as dwellings, and called Diar-teachts, " tear houses,"
or Dear-teachts, " oaken houses," and of the burning of which
we read in some of our early Christian annals. It is proba-
ble, however, that during what may be termed the Irish
mediaeval times these gave way to stone structures, and were
only roofed with timber. This church of Killursa, as well as
others, shows that many modifications, additions, and recon-
structions took place ; for it is quite impossible to believe
that this straight-lined western doorway was coeval with the
pointed southern entrance, and the large stone-mullioned east
window. As an exception to this general rule may be cited
the church at Inishmain; on Lough Mask, already referred to
at page 106, where there is a square-headed doorway on the
north side, adjoining a choir arch supported by clustered
pillars, with floral capitals. In the " Saint's Church," at In-
* O'Donovan's opinions and arguments are stated at length in his letters
preserved in the Ordnance Books already referred to, and date so early
as 1839. The same works contain Dr. Petrie's letters in reply ; but his
more matured opinions will be found in his " Round Towers,"' published
in 1845.
112
KOSS-ERRILLY.
changoill, however, the building partook in size, masonry,
and position of doorway, of the primitive type.
Looking north-eastward from Killursa Church into the fer-
tile valley through which the OwendufT flows, the eye rests on
the picturesque ruins of Koss-Errilly, depicted below ; which,
although at a distance of more than three miles from the lake,
are of too great beauty and importance not to be included
among the ecclesiastical structures along the shores of Lough
Orbsen. Upon a slight elevation on the Galway bank of the
river, surrounded by fat pasture lands, and approached by a
long avenue, or causeway, on the south, stand the extensive
ruins of this Franciscan convent and church, and which are
thus referred to by the Donegal Annalists : — "A. D. 1351, The
monastery of Ros-Oirbhealagh [afterwards called Eoserrilly],
FIT Z-GAYNARD. 113
in the diocese of Tuam, was erected for Franciscans." And
when, in 1604, Brian Oge O'Rourke was buried there, the name
had changed to Ross-Iriala.*
The following legend still exists: — The building was com-
menced at Ross-daff, on the north or Mayo side of the river,
when three swans came and perched on it, and having re-
mained some time, new to the other side with some ros, or
flaxseed, which there grew up forthwith ; and then the former
structure was deserted, and the present commenced, and called
Ross-an-tree- Olla, "the flaxseed of the three swans," which, in
course of years and mispronunciation of the language, became
Ross-Errilly.f
*, See O'Donovan's translation of the Annals of the Four Masters.
Archdall, who had not access to these great historic repertories, states
in his " Monasticon," that it was erected in 1498, by a Lord Gannard ;
but who he was had not then been ascertained. Sir B. Burke, our present
Ulster King of Arms, in answer to my question on the subject, says that
" there never was an English Lord Gannard ;" but conjectures that the
name should be Gaynard, and has furnished me with the following passage
from an Inquisition taken at Galway, 29th January, 1584 : — " .... fitz.
Gerr. et Gaynard et Richardus fitzWillem Gaynard/ cum consanguineis de
nomine et stirpe de les Gaynard erant seit de feodo de 15 qr terr vocat
1 the Gaynard land,' &c. &c. et 2 qr de Bredaghe unacum Insula de Inish-
creas, in Stagno quse vulgarit diet Logh Corbo," &c. And this is the more
probable, because, in the "Division of Connaught," in 1586, we find that
"William Gaynard possessed the Castle of Cargin See pp. 49 and 88.
t The derivation of Rosserrily has not been given ; if not that men-
tioned in the text, possibly it may be a corruption of Ross Iarla — the Earl's
Ross, or peninsula. By an inquisition on the 22nd April, 1636, " this
monastery is called Rossryally, and placed in Mointermoroghow, in the ter-
ritory of Clanrickard." — See note to Annals of Four Masters, a. d. 1604.
114 THE FRANCISCANS.
The illustration has been taken from the south-east, from
which point the best general view of this charming group of
ruins may be obtained. The house to the extreme right of the
picture, called " Castle Burke," was probably the private resi-
dence of the Guardian, or the Provincial, who occasionally re-
sided here. The church was not built cruciform, as in the case
of its brethren at Kilconnell and Clare-Galway, but the high
central tower, supported on pointed arches, springs from the
junction of nave and chancel. The gables on the left are those
of additions, and that in the centre, of a mortuary chapel.
Popularly, but erroneously, this building is styled an "abbey,"
as in the instances of the two last named edifices ; but an
abbey can only appertain to a community governed by an
Abbot, which office did not belong to the Franciscan order.
Before examining the ruins in detail, let us read what was
written of them 250 years ago. In 1617, two Irish Franciscans,
Fathers Purcell and Mooney, were resident at Louvain, where
they and their order had, after their expulsion from Ireland,
been protected by Albert and Isabella, then joint sovereigns of
the Netherlands. Mooney, at that time Provincial, and far ad-
vanced in years, had been in early life a soldier, and served in
the Desmond wars. Purcell was a man of great learning ; and,
from materials supplied him by his superior, wrote, partly as a
dialogue, a Latin history of his order, so far as it related
to their Irish establishments. This interesting MS., the ori-
ginal of which is in the Burgundian Library at Brussels, the
RECOLLECTIONS OF ROSSERILLY. 115
Rev. C. P. Meehan, of Dublin, lately translated and published.*
Mooney's recollections of this monastery are thus afforded by
his ancient scribe and modern commentator : —
" Never was a more solitary spot chosen for the habitation
of a religious community than that on which Rosserilly stands ;
for it is surrounded by marshes and bogs, and the stillness that
reigns there is seldom broken, save by the tolling of the
church bell, or the whirr of the countless flocks of plover
and other wilds birds that frequent the fens which abound
in that desolate region. Another remarkable feature of the
locality is, that the monastery can only be approached by a
causeway, paved with large stones, over an extent of fully two
hundred paces, and terminating at the enclosure, which was
built in 1572 by Father Ferrall Mac Egan, a native of Con-
nauo-ht, and then Provincial of the Irish Franciscans. He was,
in sooth, a distinguished man in his day, far-famed for elo-
quence and learning, and singularly fond of Rosserilly, which
he used to compare to the Thebaid, whither the early Chris-
tians fled for prayer and contemplation. He died in our house
of Kilconnell, where he made his religious profession, and
there he awaits the rusurrection — peace to his memory ! As
to the church of Rosserilly, it is indeed a beautiful edifice ; and
the same maybe said of the monastery, which, although often
* See his " Noctes Lovanienses," in "Duffy's Hibernian Magazine,"
for 1860 and 1861. A transcript of the original is now in the library
of Trinity College, Dublin.
12
116 THE ARCHBISHOP AND THE GUARDIAN.
garrisoned by the English troops during the late war, is still
in excellent preservation. Cloister, refectory, dormitory, chap-
ter house, library, and lofty bell tower, have all survived the
disasters of that calamitous period ; but, in the twenty-sixth
year of the reign of Elizabeth, the friars were forcibly ex-
pelled from their beloved retreat."
The friars, however, soon returned, and remained in quiet
possession for long after, till Sir Arthur Chichester, then Lord
Deputy, directed O'Donnell, Archbishop of Tuam,* to turn
them out ; but that good and learned Protestant sent them
word privately of his intention, and they saved themselves
and their effects by flight. One good turn deserved another ;
and this kindness was repaid in 1641, when, after the mas-
sacre at Shrule, Father Brian Kilkelly, then Guardian of
Rosserilly, hearing of the atrocities which were enacting
* Dr. William O'Donnell, F. T. C. D or, as he is styled by English
writers, Daniel — who died Archbishop of Tuam in 1628, was a very learned
man, and thoroughly acquainted with the Irish language. He translated the
Book of Common Prayer from the English into our native tongue ; and is
also said, by TTare and others, to have translated the New Testament Scrip-
tures from Greek into Irish. This latter statement is not, however, strictly
correct, as the author has shown in the account he published in 1841 of the
translation and printing of the New Testament Scriptures, in his Memoir of
Sir Thomas Molyneux, referred to at pages 74 and 123 of this book. — See
"Gallery of Illustrious Irishmen," No. XIII., in " The Dublin University
Magazine," for September, 1841, p. 308. The men who assisted O'Donnell
were — Miles Mac Brody and Daniel Inigin, and their labours in trans-
lation were fully acknowledged by the learned prelate.
THE GOOD OLD TIMES. 117
within a few miles of him, hastened to the spot, succoured
the wounded, and brought the Bishop of Killala's wife and
children to his monastery, and treated them with the greatest
kindness. See Otway's " Tour in Connaught."
Great changes have taken place in the surrounding scene
since Father Mooney's description was written. This site was
in all probability a Claain, an " isolated meadow," or oasis ; and
there was originally a water course leading from some springs,
pools, and turloughs, on the south-east, which supplied a
stream that turned a small mill, the foundations of which still
exist, and then passed by a conduit through the kitchen on the
northern side into a fish tank, or circular reservoir, within the
walls, the cut stone margin of which remains ; so that the
fresh trout and curdy salmon from the neighbouring OwendufF
prevented the worthy friars from feeling the effects of absti-
nence on fast days.
This kitchen is a spacious apartment, fitted up with oven,
extensive fire-place, and an aperture through which the smoking
savoury viands could be passed at once into the refectory, which
adjoins its eastern side, and had all the other appliances which
the gustatory taste of the period could suggest ; so that, if
the Franciscans did not exactly fare "like sons of Irish kings,"
they certainly lived like gentlemen, and much good may it
have done them. In the north-east corner of this refectory is
a sedile, with a handsome slender pillar support, in which
the reader, in sonorous tones, read to the fathers as they were
regaled from the produce of the adjoining kitchen. Wander-
118 CHURCH DESECRATION.
ing among these noble ruins, evincing so much taste, if not
luxury, one cannot help peopling them, in imagination, with
the inmates of four or five hundred years gone by ; when, after
dinner, the brown-robed friars strolled in the adjoining clois-
ters, of which several of the arches are quite perfect. But the
picture dims as we proceed from that portion of the ruins allo-
cated to the creature comforts of the clergy, to those devoted
to the service of the Most High ; for, passing into the great
church by its western entrance, amidst heaps of human skulls
and bones, into the great aisle or nave, we are at once met
by droves of sheep and oxen, that rush from off the altars, or
from out of the tombs, or from within the precincts of the
small chapels around us. It would not be profitable to either
reader or tourist to depict the amount of desecration which the
author witnessed in this abbey on several occasions, but espe-
cially in July, 1866. Here, in former times, were interred, with
pomp, while bells tolled, friars chaunted, and chieftains clad
in all the panoply of funereal state assisted at the ceremonial,
the mortal remains of the O'Flahertys, O'Donnells, Kirwans,
Lynchs, Brownes, Mac Donnells, Burkes, Kilkellys, and other
Connaught notabilities, whose tombs stud the walls or pave
the aisles of Ross-Errilly, but which are now the habitation
of rabbits, sheep, and oxen.* The total length of this great
church is 128 feet, and its breadth 20J feet. The arches be-
tween the nave and side aisle on the southern side, as we
* This is not the first notice of the desecration of Ross-Errilly, and the
indecent exposure of the vast multitude of human remains within and around
ROSS-ERRILLY. 119
enter from the west ; the tall tower, 70 feet high, supported
upon pointed arches, that separates the nave and chancel ;
the beauteous four-lighted east window, partially deformed
though it be by the unsightly modern tomb that occupies
the situation of the high altar ; the coronetted tomb of the
founder, recessed into the northern wall ; the low, deeply-
moulded arches that lead into the side chapels ; the history
of the families to whose memory the different mortuary chapels
were erected, and all the architectural details of this memo-
rable place, would occupy many pages to describe ; but pos-
sibly the foregoing will be sufficient for the purposes of this
the ruins ; for, twenty-eight years ago, the Rev. Caesar Otway produced at
the Royal Irish Academy a human skull from Ross-Errilly, upon which long
shaggy moss had grown, and feelingly remarked upon the circumstance here
referred to. He afterwards alluded to it in his " Tour in Connaught,"
already referred to at p. 116. Not long since, Mr. Bevan, the writer
of Murray's valuable " Handbook for Travellers in Ireland," has thus
described it: — "It is the cemetery of many good Connaught families, and
probably contains more grinning and ghastly skulls than any catacomb, some
of the tracery of the windows being filled up with thigh bones and heads— a
not uncommon way of disposing of these emblems of mortality in Irish
abbeys." Father Conway has also drawn public attention to the subject in
a letter recently published in the " Freeman's Journal."
Mr. Oliver Burke, of the neighbouring family of Ower, a gentleman
who takes much interest in antiquarian matters, did good service to these
ruins very lately, by removing the obstructions from between the mul-
lions of the beautiful windows, and also by making several repairs in the
tower, and thereby rendering it accessible to the top ; he also caused some
good photographs to be made of the interior.
120 ROSS-ERRILLY.
work.* There are many interesting and peculiarly Irish archi-
tectural details in this ruin, among which are the decoration of
the bolt-hole in the western door-way, which resembles some
of the Newgrange carvings ; the beautiful cross, a fragment
of which has been erected over a grave adjoining the modern
western wall ; and the form of an ancient hatchet or Tuath
figured on the tomb of the Tnuhils in 1617, who probably
derived their name from that implement. The great bell, with
its silver tongue, is, it is said, occasionally heard to chime in
its deep bed in the adjoining river.
From the rolls of the order we learn that in 1647 a chap-
ter of Franciscans was held here under the presidency of the
Very Rev. Anthony de Burgo ; and also that it was occupied
until 1687, when the Rev. P. O'Neill was elected Provincial,
and the Rev. B. OTlaherty Guardian ; and the friars prayed for
James II. and his consort, and his Irish viceroy, Tirconnell. —
See Appendix. It is said that at a later period Lord St. George
aided the friars by placing some looms in the church when the
government sent down orders to dispossess them.
* Irish ecclesiastical history ought to have been pretty well determined in
the middle of the nineteenth century. Usshcr, AY are, King, Harris, Lani-
gan, De Burgo, Archdall, the O'Clearys, O'Donovan, Petrie, Todd, Reeves,
O'Curry, and the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy,
and the Archaeological and Celtic Societies, have illustrated the subject so far
as probably it is possible. What then will be thought of a work published in
New York, in 1854, entitled, " History of the Irish Hierarchy," full of gross
errors, strong anti-English prejudices, and innumerable plagiarisms, in which
the following description of the ruins occurs: — "Ross, a monastery . . . .
THE BATTLE OF THE FAIRIES. 121
The following circumstance serves to show how far the
legend, the fairy tale, the local tradition, or the popular super-
stition may have been derived from absolute historic fact. A
gentleman residing in the neighbourhood lately told the author
that about 200 years ago it was mysteriously communicated to
the people of the district, that the fairies of Knockmagh were,
upon a certain day, to have a battle at Eoss with the fairies of
Scotland. Thither flocked the people from all quarters, and
great was the excitement. Well — they waited at the abbey
all that long summer's day until sundown, in anxious expec-
tation of the prodigy, and were about returning home, when,
lo, and behold, in the twilight the sky became darkened, and
a great humming noise was heard in the air, and then the
forces of Fin-Varragh, in the form of Primpiollans, or beetles,
met those of the hostile fairy chief from the other side of
the Channel, and a terrific conflict ensued. Thousands of
founded ... in the diocese of Tuam, A. d. 1431. It is a very solitary place,
surrounded on all sides by water. Rosserrilly, in the barony of Clare, si-
tuated on the river of Ross. The Lord Granard founded this monastery for
the strict observants, a. d. 1498. A. d. 1604 the Roman Catholics repaired
the Abbey of Rosserrilly ; its ruins, which still remain, show it to have been a
very extensive building." Now, every word of the foregoing, erroneous as
it is, is extracted, without acknowledgment, from the " Monasticon Hiber-
nicon," the labour of the Rev. Mervyn Archdall, the Protestant writer of
1786; but the Rev. Mr. Walsh, his American commentator, has added to
the foregoing the following passage: — "It has been lately purchased by
the Archbishop of Tuam.' 1 If it had, we would have expected a better
preservation of this ancient ruin ; but it belongs to a gentleman living a long
distance off, on the south-eastern border of the county of Galway.
122 THE LOCUST PLAGUE.
them fell dead all round ; and others, rushing into the church
and monastery, strewed the sacred edifice with the slain. Such,
without variation or adornment, is the tradition still current
in the locality.
The informant was not a little surprised when told that
the narrative was founded on fact; that the author knew all
about it, and had published an account of it many years
ago. It is this : — In 1688 a swarm of locusts, so called, in-
vaded Connaught, and are thus described by Sir Thomas Moly-
neux : —
"They appeared on the south-west coast of the county of
Galloway : from hence they made their way into the more in-
land parts, towards Headford, a place belonging to Sir George
St. George, Bart., about twelve miles north from the town of
Galloway; here, and in the adjacent country, multitudes of
them showed themselves among the trees and hedges in the
day-time, hanging by the boughs ; thousands together, in clus-
ters, sticking to the back one of another, as in the manner
of bees when they swarm. In this position, or lying still and
covert under the leaves of the trees, they continued quiet,
with little or no motion, during the heat of the sun ; but to-
wards evening, or sunset, they would all rise, disperse, and
fly about, with a strange humming noise, much like the beat-
ing of drums at some distance, and in such vast, incredible
numbers, that they darkened the air for the space of two or
three miles square.
THE LOCUST PLAGUE. 123
" So complete was the devastation occasioned by this insect,
that in a short time the whole face of the country presented
the appearance of winter, though it was then the middle of
summer — every green thing having been devoured by them.
" Nay, their multitudes spread so exceedingly, that they
disturbed men even within their dwellings ; for out of the
gardens they got into the houses, where numbers of them
crawling about were very irksome, and they would often drop
on the meat as it was dressing in the kitchen, and frequently
fall from the ceiling of the rooms into the dishes as they stood
on the table while they ate, so extremely offensive and loath-
some were they, as well as prejudicial and destructive."*
Such is the account given of this invasion by the great Irish
physician and antiquary. The insect was not the true locust,
such as occasionally devours every green thing in eastern coun-
tries, and as once invaded England from the coast of Nor-
mandy, but a description of cockchafer, the Melalontha vulgaris,
or summer beetle, that buzzes past us on calm evenings as the
harbinger of fine weather, and which is known to the peasantry
by the Irish name of primpioUan. No doubt can be entertained
on the subject, for Molyneux has given a faithful engraving of
* See a letter to St. George Ash, Bishop of Clogher, giving " An account
of the swarms of insects that of late years have much infested the province
of Connaught, in Ireland," which was printed in the " Philosophical Trans-
actions," No. 234, and was republished in Boate and Molyneux's " Natural
History of Ireland." See also the Author's Memoir of Sir T. Molyneux,
Bart., M. D., in the " Dublin University Magazine" for December, 1841.
124 THE LOCUST PLAGUE.
the animal. In winter they retired under ground, where it is
thought they hibernated ; but there they deposited their eggs,
and their larvas destroyed even more than the parent animals,
for they ate up the grain in the ground, and the crops of the
ensuing year completely failed wherever these insects existed.
A famine seemed to threaten the whole of the province, and
it became the cause of much and just alarm throughout the
entire kingdom. A long continuance of wet weather and high
winds, however, checked their further spread, and timely aided
in averting the expected calamity. They were also eaten in
large quantities by pigs and poultry, and, according to the
narrator, were even used as human food. Large fires were
likewise kept up in different districts, with the hope of arrest-
ing their progress, and towards the end of the following sum-
mer th»eir numbers had greatly diminished. They, however,
continued their progress in an easterly direction, and in 1697
" they reached as far as the Shannon, and some of the scattered,
loose parties crossed the river, and got into the province of
Leinster, but were met there by a stronger army of jackdaws,
that did much execution among them, killing and devouring
great numbers.' 1 Their main body still kept in Connaught, and
were last heard of " at a well-improved English plantation not
far from the River Shannon, called Air's Court, where they
found plenty of provision, and did a great deal of mischief by
stripping the hedges, gardens, and groves of beech, quite naked
of all their leaves." Had we this animal in Ireland before
1G88 ; and may it not again increase and devastate?
THE ISLAND OF LNCHIQUIN. 125
About a mile to the north-east of Rosserilly, but upon the
Mayo side of the river, and in the parish of Shrule, stands
the old castle of Moyne, and a little beyond it the ruins of
an ancient church. Besides these different places already re-
ferred to or described in the parish of Killursa, the following
may be noted. The site of the ancient " Church of the two
Kings," Kill-da-Reigh, from which the townland of Killdarre has
been called ; Ardfintan and Caher-Fintan, which also gives
name to a townland to the north-east of Killursa Church,
where also several raths and forts exist, and which is so called
after the ancient king already referred to at page 99 ; Cathair-
na-hailiglii, now called Cahernally, where the Kilkellys of old
resided ; and near the church the remains of a cromleagh,
termed — as such structures usually are, Leabha-Dearmid-agus-
Graina — the bed or " resting place of Dermod and Grace "
during the period of their courtship and flight from Tara ; its
top stone is 9J feet long. There are also forts and raths
along the shore, which are well worthy of inspection, especially
Lisheennakirka. The church of St. Fursa is on the property
of W. G. Burke, Esq., of Ower.
Appertaining to this parish, near its north-western end, and
about half a mile off shore, is the long, low Island of Inchiquin,
running nearly north and south ; which is upwards of a mile
and a quarter in length ; it contains 229 acres, and is the largest
island in Lough Corrib. "On that island of Insequin," O'Fla-
herty says, as already referred to at page 99, "St. Brendan
126 EARLY RURAL POPULATION.
built a chappell, and worked divers miracles. In the same is-
land St. Meldan, whose festival day is on the 7th of February,
was abbot of a famous abbey about the year 580. He was
spiritual father to the great St. Furse, of Perone, in France,
who carried the relics of this saint along with him, and en-
shrined them at Perone." The local habitation of these early
saints on Inchiquin was Rathmath, " the rath of the field" or
plain — a name that has become very celebrated from its fre-
quent mention in Irish hagiology. Its outline still exists, but
scarcely a vestige of the walls of the ecclesiastical structures
remains ; the site is, however, still used as a burial ground.
Possibly the dilapidations commenced here when "the isles of
Lough Orbsen were pillaged by the Danes." Its Irish name
is Inis-Mac-Hy-chuinn — the island of the descendants of Con,
Monarch of Ireland in the second century ; and it was so cele-
brated, that the entire lake is said at one time to have been
called Inis-ui-chuinn. Three Cons have been celebrated in
Irish history, and Con-Cedchathact, here referred to, was the
ancestor of St. Meldan. It is said, traditionally, that Roderick
O'Conor, when on his way to Cong, after his abdication in
1183, rested at this island; but, finding a favouring breeze, he
said, "Well, if the land is against me, the wind is with me ;"
and so set sail sail for Illaunree.
Having advanced thus far in the footprints of the early
founders of Christianity in the west, and traced the early Irish
and the Norman chieftains through their forts and castles, the
EARLY RURAL POPULATION. 127
question naturally arises, when looking to the present sparsity
of population in the same districts — where the population came
from, and what was its amount, to whose spiritual necessities
these early missionaries ministered, or for whose defence or go-
vernance these cahers and cashels were erected. To the tro-
glodyte people, whose subterranean dwellings will be described
farther on in this book, it is here unnecessary to refer; but
that long subsequent to their period there must have been a
very great population in Ireland is shown by the vast num-
ber of earthen forts, raths, and lisses with which the country
in certain fertile localities, is studded. Even in this far western
district we have examples of this ; for, in a comparatively small
space upon the Ordnance Sheet 5Q, including portions of the
junction of the parishes of Killeany, Kilcoona, and Annagh-
down, there are no less than 50 raths and circles marked ; and,
as the author has shown elsewhere, certain districts in Kerry
presented a greater amount of population than at present exists
in any rural part of Ireland of the same extent. Each of these
forts was either the habitation of a large family, or sometimes
a village ; and the larger ones belonged to chieftains, or per-
sons of rank. But then, it must be remembered that there
were no large towns or cities in those days.*
* See the Author's Lecture upon "Ireland Past and Present — the Land
and the People," delivered at the Metropolitan Hall, Dublin, in 18G4, and
published by M'Glashan and Gill, p. 19.
CHAPTER VI.
INCHIQIJIN TO INCHANGOILL AND CONG.
COUNTY OF MAYO. THE ISLANDS OF LOUGH CORRIB. INISHANBOE. PARISH
OF SHEULE. BALLYCURRIN, BALLISAHTNET, AND MOCEARA CASTLES.
FORTS. PARISH OF CONG. INCHANGOILL. ST. PATRICK'S, AND THE
SAINT'S CHURCHES. STONE OF LUGNAEDON. SOUTH-EAST BORDER
OF CONG PARISH. CASTLETOWN. INCHMICATREER. CROSS. AN-
CIENT CHURCHES OF KILFRAUGHAUN AND KILLARSAGH. MOYTURA.
LACKAFINNA. LISLOUGHRY. CONG ISLANDS. KINLOUGH. ASHFORD.
STRAND HILL. CONG.
Keturnlng to our steamer from the point where we landed,
at Annakeen Castle, to investigate the extensive parish of
Killursa, and continuing our north-west course, we steer by
the south-west corner of Rabbit Island, from whence glimpses
of the grand mountain view already referred to may be de-
scried. And here, as we enter the broad waters of the upper
lake, a word about the islands which cluster around us may
be useful.
The islands of Lough Corrib are so numerous, that the
people of the district say they number 365, or one for
every day in the year, and that an additional one rises
ISLANDS ON LOUGH CORRIH. 129
on leap year ; and as many as 145, independent of rocks and
shoals, have been named. The largest are those of Inchiquin,
Inchmicatreer, Dooms, Inchangoill, Cannaun, Lee's Island, and
Illaunaconaun. Passing the narrow channel through which the
steamer darns its tortuous path, amidst the intricate navigation
of rocks, shoals, and breakers, and getting into the open space
of the large or middle lake, we are struck with the curious
appearance of the groups of islands in threes and fours, ar-
ranged in lines, as if marking the ancient boundaries of the
lake beach. Such may be observed in those running nearly
north and south, from Bilberry Island to Cussafoor, and from
Coad to Inishbeagh, both to the west of the steamer's track ;
and from Carrickaslin to Inchbiana, to the east of that line ;
and again a group of five, stretching from the north-east point
of Inishdoorus, by Cleenillaun and Ardillaun, to the west of
the Cong River. The west face of several of these small islands
is truncated, the alluvial soil and gravel having been cut down
by the winds and waves of thousands of years.
As we are now passing Inchiquin, already twice refer-
red to, we must again, in fancy, if not in fact, land our tourist
freight for a short digression to the mainland. Before, how-
ever, we take leave of the Galway waters, or pass into
those of Mayo, we must introduce the accompanying vig-
nette of the Rev. John D'Arcey's pretty cottage upon Inish-
anboe, " the island of the old cow," that just now appears in
view, among the cluster of small islands to the west of our
K
130
IXISHANBOE.
course. It is so called on account of the usual tradition or cow
leo-end of which the tale will be told when describing Kilcum-
min, the parish to which this island belongs.
We now enter the county of Mayo portion of the lake,
and pass along the south-western boundary of the extensive
parish of SHRULE — Shruille — in Irish, Struthair or Srutlio-fuile,
" the bloody stream" — which is next in succession to Killursa,
on the eastern shore of the lake. It spreads along the coast
for about two miles, and proceeds inland in a south-easterly
direction for nearly five miles, except where it includes the
small parish of Kilmain-beg. Although possessing several ob-
jects of historic and antiquarian interest, especially the fine
old castle at the village of Shrule, they are x not sufficiently
near Lough Corrib to bring them within the pale of this work.
HALLYCURK1N (ASTi.K.
1B1
This parish is situated in the south-west corner of the barony
of Kilmain, and county of Mayo, and extends from the Black
River, which divides it from the county of Galway, to the
stream at the mill of Ballynalty, which separates it from the
parish of Cong. The vicinity of this little country mill is a
noted spawning ground for Salmonidce, and around it grow, in
great profusion and luxuriance, the bushy shrubs of the Poten-
tilla fructuosa.
Besides the great tower at Shrule, there are several ruined
castles in the western extremity of this parish, of which the
most extensive and best preserved is Ballycurrin, within view
of the steamer, and in connexion with the beautiful residence
of Charles Lynch, Esq., as figured in the subjoined illustra-
tion, taken from the south-east.
This old tower-house, or defensive mansion, consists of a
quadrangular ivy-mantled keep — now somewhat altered for mo-
k2
132 BALLYCURBXN.
dern purposes — 64 feet long on the south, 39 on the west face,
and 47 feet high ; but possessing no architectural memorial
by which to assign even a probable date to it, as the dressed
stones are not chiselled, but punched, or what is styled
" sparrow-picked ;" massive defence and security having evi-
dently been the main objects of its founders. Both it and the
modern residence are most pleasingly situated on a green
slope, rising from a sheltered little bay, and surrounded by a
large park of well-grown timber. There is no reference to
this ancient building in our histories or inquisitions ; and the
only legend attaching thereto is, that it was built in the " ould
times" by one of three brothers, the two others of whom erected
those of Ballysnahiney and Moceara (possibly Mac-Ceara), with
which it forms a triangle. After the Milesian invasion, our
bardic histories say that one of that race, named " Caicer,
erected a castle at Dunn Inn, in the West of Ireland." Upon
the shore adjoining Bally currin there exists a mound, or earthen
tumulus of that name, about 30 feet high, and occupying
nearly a rood of ground, which Mr. Lynch thinks may be that
referred to above, and mentioned in Keating's History of Ire-
land. There is, however, no mortared structure in Ireland
older than the Christian Era. And he is also of opinion that
Ceara, one of the artificers said to have come over at that
time, left his name to many localities in Connaught — such as
Lough Ceara, Castle Ceara ; and in this immediate neighbour-
hood, Tobar- Ceara and Gorren- Ceara, or Ceara's well and gar-
INCHANGOILL. 133
den. In the old quit rent receipts Bally currin is called Bally-
car, possibly a corruption or Anglicized version of Bally-Ceara.
In the vicinity was found a collection of amber beads, and
several bronze antiquities, now in the Collection of the Royal
Irish Academy.
In the south-east of this parish, and to the right of the road
between Moyne and Cross, there are several objects worthy of
inspection, especially the great Pagan forts of Cahermore and
Cahernahilk, &c.
We are still in Mayo waters : in the barony of Kilmain,
and legally within the limits of the extensive and celebrated
parish of CONG, which forms the entire northern boundary of
Lough Corrib in both counties, and extends from its junction
with that of Shrule to near the bridge of Maam, a distance
of about twenty miles. As the nearest point of land in this
parish is immediately on the larboard or western side of our
track, we will conduct our readers to it.
Inchangoill — Inis-an-ghoill- Craibhtheach, " the island of the
devout foreigner," Gael, or Gail, as all strangers were formerly
styled — which now rises its long green ridge-like back to the
west of our course, is by far the most interesting island on
the lake ; and, if we said one of the most remarkable spots on
Irish ground, we should not fear to take up the gauntlet in
its favour, for picturesque scenery, grand mountain view, and
existing historic monuments.
In an undulating slope, where the island narrows towards
its centre, an extensive graveyard, in an ancient ecclesiastical
134 INCHANGOILL CHURCHES.
enclosure, marks where, so long as there were any of the name
left in the country, the Kinnaveys, Conways, Sullivans, Mur-
phy s, Lyddans, Butlers, and others, interred their dead ; and
many a wild wail of the Irish keen has floated over the sur-
rounding waters, as the funeral procession of boats, with their
picturesquely clad freights, approached the shore of this sacred
isle.
Within this graveyard, lately enclosed by its present pro-
prietor, Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, Bart., the restorer of St.
Patrick's, stand the ruins of two exceedingly ancient churches,
both of the small Irish type, already noticed at page 107,
but of far different styles and dates. That to the north-east,
which is much the older and plainer, bears all the characteristics
of its period in its narrow square-headed doorway, with in-
clined jambs, and the Cyclopean style of its masonry. It was
not built due east and west, but inclines to the north of the
former, and south of the latter, as sometimes occurs in our very
early Irish churches.* This little Team/pull Phaichng, or " St.
Patrick's Church," which is 34 feet 7 inches long, measured
by its outer Avail, is divided by a slight recess into a nave
and chancel, but there are no vestiges of a dividing arch ;
and it is questionable whether any very early church of this
* As already stated at page 108, many of our old Irish churches are not
built exactly east and west. Cormac's Chapel, at Cashel, and the adjoining-
cathedral, present strikingly different bearings. The old Gobaun Saers, when
laying a church foundation, assumed as east and west the points in the
horizon where the sun rose and set at the time. This would account for
a multitude of differences in the cast of such buildings.
TEAMPULL PHA1DRIG. 135
class had originally a choir arch.* Its internal dimensions are,
29 feet 7 inches in the clear, of which 17 feet 11 inches by
11 feet 10 inches are occupied by the nave ; the chancel' is
11 feet 7 inches by 8 feet 8 inches. There are no remains of
the altar or the east window, nor of any side light. The massive
walls, now about 9 feet high, of what is termed Cyclopean work,
show no signs of morter except in their interior. The stones
of the south-western portion of the wall of the gable have
lately been carefully replaced ; and the square-headed doorway
in it, figured at page 142, is of the true primitive type, and
about 6 feet high ; its jambs formed of square, but uncut
stones, incline inwards, from 24J inches at the sill to 22-J
inches under the massive lintel, which is 4 feet 8 inches long.f
" That this church," says Dr. Petrie, " is of the age of St.
Patrick, as is believed in the traditions of the country, and
as its name would indicate, can, I think, scarcely admit of
doubt." — Round Towers, page 163.
What gives the most special interest to this locality is
the preservation there of a monumental stone, containing, un-
* The choir arch in the little church called St. Kevin's Kitchen, at
Glendalough, may be cited as contradicting this statement; but it is pro-
bably not so old as that at Inchangoill ; and, besides, such arches may
have been superadded to the original building. Why are such structures
styled by writers, "triumphal arches"?
t See a view of this doorway in Petrie's " Round Towers," p. 163 ;
and Wakeman's sketch of it as it stood in 1839, in the " Galway Ordnance
Letter Book," vol. iii., p. 47; and in his useful little book, "A Week in
the West,"
13(5
LUGNAEDON S STONE.
doubtedly, one of the very earliest Christian inscriptions in
Ireland. It is a single four-sided obelistic pillar, of hard,
greyish Silurian stone,* unhewn, slightly cambered, broad at the
base, where it measures 10 inches, and gradually decreasing from
6 to 5 inches on the inscribed side, which faces the south-
west end of St. Patrick's
Church, and from which
it is distant a few paces.
This monolith now stands
2 feet 4 inches over the
ground, as a headstone to
a grave, but that such was
|p not its original position is
manifest ; and it has all
the appearance of having
been one of those cor-
bel stones so often seen
projecting in old Irish
churches, and of which
\ l}| \^ff/ // ' there is an example in the
north-east angle of the gable of the neighbouring " Church
of the Saint." It has at top two crosses on the west, two on
the east (as shown in the accompanying illustrations), two on
* Professor Haughton, who examined a small fragment of this fossilife-
rous stone for the author, reports that " It is a fine-grained micaceous sand-
stone, eolonred green by silicate of iron ; it contains fragments of Orthis."
There are other similar stele, but uncarved, throughout this graveyard.
ltjgnaedon's stone. 1o7
the south, and one on the north face, which may be re-
garded as examples of the most ancient carvings of that sacred
emblem now to be found in the British Isles, or perhaps, if
we except those in the Catacombs of Rome, anywhere in
Europe.
On the east face is an inscription, in the Uncial or old
Latin character, which is reduced from a most careful rub-
bing lately taken by the Earl of Dunraven.* It reads per-
pendicularly, and was first published in 1845 by the late Dr.
Petrie, in his celebrated work upon " The Ecclesiastical
Architecture and Round Towers of Ireland," as Lia Lugnaeclon
Mace Lmenueh, "the Stone of Lugnaedon, son of Limenueh,"
the sister of St. Patrick. Taking the authorities in consecu-
tive order, it may be observed that Roderick O'Flaherty, who
first informed us of the ancient name of this island, makes
no allusion to this monolith. In 1810 an officer quartered
in Galway described it in a local newspaper, and an Irish-
speaking soldier of his regiment gave a fanciful interpretation
of its inscription. f
In 1839 our great topographer, John O'Donovan, then
* At Llandewi-breefi, in South Wales, there is a somewhat similar stone,
with a like character of inscription, said to be of the fifth century.
t See the " Hibernian Magazine," edited by the redoubted Watty Cox,
and quoted by Dutton in his u Statistical Survey of the County of Galway."
In 1824 Dr. Petrie, in company with Samuel Lover, was in the West
of Ireland, and visited Inchangoill, where he had an opportunity of examin-
ing this stone.
138 LUGNAEDON.
employed upon the Ordnance Survey, visited the island, along
with Mr. Wakeman, who made most careful drawings of the
stone, and all the other objects of antiquarian interest in con-
nexion with these two churches ; and O'Donovan's illustrated
communication of the 27th of June in that year is preserved
in that great repertory of Irish history, " The Ordnance
Letters on the Antiquities of the county of Galway," vol. iii.,
page 46, now in the Library of the Koyal Irish Academy.
With reference to this stone he writes thus at page 50 : —
It " exhibits a very ancient inscription, in the Roman charac-
ters, of the fifth or very beginning of the sixth century ;"* and
adds, " That this Lugnoedon Mace Lmenueh was no other than
Praesbyter Lugnath, who was the son of Liemania, otherwise
Darerca, the sister of St. Patrick, is highly probable, though
we have no account of his having lived or being buried in this
island. According to the 'Book of Lecan,' fol. 51, p. b. col. 5,
Presbyter Lugna (otherwise called Lugnath), was the alumnus
of St.. Patrick, and son of his sister ; and he was located at a
place called Fearta, in Tir Fheg, on Lough Mask, where Duach
Teanga Umha, King of Connaught, gave him and his fellow-
labourers the lands extending from that part of Lough Mask
called Snamh Tire Feig to Sail Dea. In the same MS., fol. 45,
a. 1, he is called St. Patrick's Luamaire or navigator. The Irish
* O'Donovan likewise gives, in proof of this opinion, examples from an
alphabet of the seventh century, furnished by Astle "On the Origin and
Progress of Writing," p. 96. Lugnaedon's stone is also figured in his Irish
Grammar.
THE ORDNANCE SURVEY. 13 ( J
authorities are not, however, all agreed upon the history of this
saint, some making him the son of St. Patrick's sister Lupita,
some of his sister Darerca, and others of Liemania ! But this
stone is a cotemporaneous monument, and should be received
as historical evidence to prove that he was the son of Liemania.
This inscription is the oldest Christian monument I have yet
seen ; and, whatever doubts there may be about the history of
this saint, as given in the Irish MSS., there can be none about
the authenticity of this inscription." O'Donovan also gives
the various authorities from the Irish hagiology, and Eugene
O'Curry's extracts from the Book of Lecan, and other Irish
MSS. bearing on the subject.*
Subsequently our great ecclesiologist, Dr. Petrie, published,
as already stated at page 137, a drawing of this inscribed stone,
* The foregoing references to the ancient monuments in the island of
Inchangoill, contained in the MS. Ordnance Letters, now amounting to 137
thick quarto volumes, are here specially introduced in order to show the
great value of these productions. With Larcom directing the survey, maps,
and topography — Petrie, with an office in Dublin, and a staff, in which were
Eugene O'Curry, George Downes, Clarence Mangan, O'Keeffe, and others,
searching the ancient records, and transmitting to the fieldworkers the
results of their labours ; and with O'Donovan, O'Connor, and others, in-
vestigating each parish and townland in Ireland, exploring its antiquities,
jotting down its local history and legends, and attended in many localities
by draftsmen of the first character — Wakeman and Du Noyer, both pupils
of Petrie — who made most graphic sketches, some of which have been already
published — a work was produced unsurpassed by anything of the kind in the
world. The 137 volumes of manuscripts to which we have referred, and
which are deposited in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, are no
longer a sealed book, but are freely open to all students of Irish history.
140 st. Patrick's nephew.
and gave a learned dissertation upon it, which confirms O'Dono-
van's opinion, and said, " that the most ancient authorities which
make mention of Lugnat, concur in stating that he was one of
the seven sons of the Bard or Lombard — as in Duald Mac
Firbis's compilation of ancient genealogies, and that the most of
those authorities state that these seven sons of the Lombard
were St. Patrick's nephews," and quotes in support thereof the
Leabhar Breac, which states that " Cruimther Lugnai (i. e., the
foster-son of Patrick and son of his sister) was the seventh son
of the Bard, and located at Ferta of Tir Feic, on Lough Mask."*
Of this inscription, says the Rev. Dr. Todd, in his work on
the Life and Mission of "St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland," its
character may, with almost certainty, be regarded as not later
than the beginning of the sixth century ; and he observes, that
" Lugnaedon is the Celtic genitive of Lugnad, or Lugna, the
name given to the youngest of the seven sons of Limanin,"
of which Limenue is also the genitive. The inscription, of
which the foregoing is a facsimile, is, however, still suscep-
tible of further elucidation. f No matter what interpretation
* Where Tir Feig is, unless it be the very ancient square-headed
church at lloss Hill, also called Teampull Phaidrig, is unknown.
f In the Appendix to his " History of the Ancient Churches of Armagh,"
the liev. Dr. Reeves writes : — " Of Lupeit, or Lupita, St. Patrick's alleged
sister, there is no notice in any of the Irish calendars. The tract on the
mothers of the saints of Ireland, ascribed to Aengus, the Culdee, says, Lu-
pait, sister of Patrick, was the mother of the seven sons of Ula Baird [an
Irish chieftain] ; namely, Nectan, Dabonda, Mogorman, Darigue, Ausille,
Sechnell, and Crumtha Lugnadh." — See also the " Tripartite Life of St.
Patrick," p. 235 ; and the " Irish Book of Hymns," p. 34.
THE SAINTS CHURCH. 141
may be given of the second line, no doubt can exist that
Petrie and O'Donovan were correct in stating that this was
the monumental stone of Lugnad, or Lugnaedon — the former
of whom inclined to the opinion that he was the son of Res-
titutus, the Lombard, and Lemueh.
A short distance to the south-east is the second building —
Teampull-na-Neave, "the Church of the Saint," probably Lug-
nad ; and an ancient flagged way, 79 yards long, leads between
the two. It is a more modern and highly decorated structure
than that called after our great Irish Missionary, and lies
nearly due east and west. It measures 38 feet 1 inch from
out to out, of which 26 feet 4 inches is the length of the
wall of the nave, and 11 feet 9 inches that of the recessed
chancel, which is 5 feet 11 inches wide at the eastern end.
The masonry of this church is, to a certain extent, laid in
courses, except a portion of the south wall, which is very
massive, or what is usually called Cyclopean ; but the quoins
and several other stones were dressed. Projecting from the
north-east angle of the wall of the nave is a remarkable cor-
bel-shaped stone, 2 feet 4 inches long, that reminds one
strongly of the Lugnaedon pillar, and strengthens the opinion
given at page 136.
Here, in juxtaposition, but in chronological and architec-
tural contrast, are shown, on the two next pages, the door-
ways of the Inchangoill Churches. The first, taken from
a photograph made last year, represents the plain, severe.
142
» .
DOORWAY OF ST. PATRICK S CHURCH
square-headed doorway of the very early primitive church,
or Teampull Phaidrig, described at page 135. And on the
opposite side we have represented the beautiful' highly deco-
rated, circular-arched, cluster-pillared doorway of Teampull na
^,:W/W?
Neave, now for the first time brought before the archaeo-
logical world ; and between the erection of which and the
former, some centuries must have elapsed. This marvellous
doorway, which is a grand specimen of early Irish deco-
rative art, is decidedly anterior to the date of the Anglo-
Norman conquest. Like its elder brother adjoining, it is
DOORWAY OF THE FOREIGNER S CHURCH.
143
placed in the western gable, and its jambs slope slightly in-
wards.* Its dimensions are 5 feet 11 inches from the lower
edfje of the arch to the sill, 2 feet 2 inches wide at bottom,
and 2 feet at top — almost the same as that of its primitive
neighbour, previously described. The entire thickness of
this doorway is 39 inches ; it is formed of a reddish drab
* The doorway of the church of Dysart, near Currofin, Co. Clare, adjoin-
ing the round tower there, presents features similar to the foregoing, espe-
cially in the row of heads surrounding the arch.
144 DOORWAY OF THE SAINTS ( 1URCH.
coloured sandstone, such as that found on the Cong side of
the lake ; where, as here, it has become porous or pitted with
small depressions, as if eaten by the Pholas. It has also suf-
fered much generally from the weather ; and although the au-
thor remembers the lower portion of the arch perfect in the
days of his boyhood, the two external or upper bands had
fallen, and their stones were strewn about.*
Fortunately, nearly every stone was forthcoming, and it
has been skilfully restored by the present proprietor within
the last few years. The jambs are formed by columnar pi-
lasters, which are crowned by human-face capitals, from which
springs the arch, the middle portion of which is carved into
deep, horizontally projecting chevrons, over which is a row
of faces, each differing from the other, and which may, for
aught we know, have been portraits ; but all are now so much
defaced by weathering on the surface, and by the pitting
already alluded to, as to efface their individuality.
* When O' Donovan was here in June, 1839, he wrote as follows— u The
west gable contains the doorway, which was highly finished, very like that in
the church of Kelleshin, near Carlow, but now much injured. It-consisted of
three concentric arches, formed of red gritstone, but the two external ones
are now nearly destroyed." To this description in the " Ordnance Letter
Book for Galway," vol. iii., p. 49, is added a charming pen-and-ink sketch of
the doorway, as it then existed, by W. Wakeman, who accompanied him.
All the lower member, and a portion of the left-hand side of the middle,
a chevron ornament, were then in situ.
THE LONGO- BARDIC COSTUME.
145
The impost capitals are of exceeding interest, as they
show a form of beard plaiting and knotted hair work, which,
though rarely represented in sculpture, were in all likelihood
the Irish fashion of its day. These, on the north and south
sides, are most faithfully represented in the annexed cut.
Such may have been the pattern of the beard of Restitntus,
the Lon go -bardic father of Lugnaedon.* A similar form of
decoration is to be seen on the fillet underneath the cap of
* A photograph does not bring out the beauties of this doorway as well
as the pencil. When the foregoing illustration was made by Mr. AVake-
man, the declining sun, then gradually throwing into relief the special
peculiarities of this great work of early Irish art, served to produce the
effect shown above.
L
146
T KAMPULL-X A-XEAY E.
the Round Tower of Devenish on Lough Erne, which is pro-
bably of contemporaneous antiquity. Another and later form
of plaited beard is shown in the figures on the grand shrine
of St. Monchan.* The entire space included by the pillars
and mouldings of this entrance is 4 feet 10 inches.
^oq, £># 'vh-- -> -*^<- / ^*^
Upon entering the church, the view here figured, faithfully
drawn from a photograph kindly furnished by the Earl of Dun-
* See the restored model of this shrine, made by the author, and now
in the Kensington Museum.
CHANCEL ARCH. AT INCHANGOILL.
147
raven, presents us with the low undecorated chancel-arch, altar,
and deeply splayed round-headed eastern light. This arch mea-
sures 8 feet 7 inches in span ; and from the keystone to the
flaggino* beneath is 9 feet 7 inches.
DO O
The nave is 21 feet 7 inches by 12 feet 9 inches in the
clear; and in the south wall there is a small, narrow, round-
headed light, 6 feet from the ground, and deeply splayed in-
side. In the western corner of that wall may be seen one of
the most remarkable pieces of carving on the island. It con-
sists of a flat, irregularly-shaped, reddish stone, 2 feet 2 inches
high, and 3 feet 10 inches wide, built into the masonry in this
Cyclopean wall, of which it evidently formed an original part.
About thirty years
ago a considerable
portion of this stone
was covered with
plaster, so that it is
evident, not only
that it formed part
of the original struc-
ture, but that its
carving was antece-
..-;^jfK-,
|^|Pfe
^.r
dent to its present purpose. Indented upon its surface is the
very ancient Greek or Byzantine cross here figured, the base
or skeleton of which is of the same type as that on the stone
of St. Brecan, at the Seven Churches in Aranmore, and on
l2
148 THE GREEK CROSS OF INCHANGOILL.
many ancient Irish tombstones. It is said that a similar cross
exists at Ard-Oilean, or " High-Island," opposite the coast of
Connamara.
The stone altar of this church is still perfect, and measures
4 feet 7 inches, by 3 feet 4 inches wide, and 1 foot 10 inches
high. Upon it are two remarkable indented stones : one has
an oblong quadrilateral hollow, 6f inches long, by 4 wide ; the
other, placed immediately under the small, eastern, round-
headed single light, is a smooth stone, with an oval-shaped
depression, 6 by 4 inches in diameter, capable of holding the
closed fist — probably a very early font. It belongs to that class
of cupped stones called in Aran, where they abound, Bullauns,
and of which there are many at Glendalough, in Wicklow, of
which "the deer stone" may be cited as an example. — See
page 164.
On a stone of the ancient flagged way leading up to the
western end of this church, is carved a square cross, with fish-
tail terminations, like those on Lugnaedon's stone, and which
is, no doubt, of great antiquity also.
Outside the north-east angle is a piece of square masonry,
10J feet by 7 feet 8 inches, and about 4 feet high, believed
to be the tomb of Muirgehas O'Nioc, Archbishop of Tuam, who
died here in 1128.
O'Flaherty, in whose footsteps we have been treading, wrote
thus of this island in 1684: — " Inis an Ghoill, so called of a
certain holy person who there lived of old, known only by the
INCHANGOILL. 149
name of An Gall Craibhtheach, i. e. the devout foreigner ; for
Gall (i. e. of the Gallick nation), they call every foreigner. So
Inis an Ghoill, or the foreigner's island, between Ross and Moy-
cullen barony on Lough Orbsen, contains half a quarter of
pleasant land belonging to Cong Abbey, and hath a fine chapell
therein, which is not for the buriall of any body." And further
adds, that it " hath two chapells, the one dedicated to St. Pa-
trick, the other to the saint of whom the island is named, which
admits not the buriall of any body, but in the first it is usuall to
bury." Very few interments now take place in the ancient
cemetery of this island, portions of which, with the adjoining
islets of Burr and Inishannagh, are planted, and will in time
present a very picturesque appearance.*
In pursuance of our route consecutively round the lake we
must return to the south-east corner of Cong parish. Viewed
from the steamer's deck, or from any northern or western point,
the hilly district, where the parishes of Shrule and Cong meet,
presents a most dreary aspect ; bare, brown, and crowded with
intersecting walls, with scarcely a tree or house to relieve the
eye ; but along the waters edge the view is diversified with
foliage and the evidence of human habitation, especially Castle-
* Although the perusal of the foregoing description of Inchangoill may
while away the time spent in passing it, the details of this memorable locality
are well worthy the tourist's attention. It can easily be visited from Cong
village, to which we are now hastening, and to the Galway portion of which
parish it belongs.
L50 IXISHMK ATREER.
town, the residence of Mr. Story, which forms a conspicuous
object from all parts of the lake in any way west of it. It takes
its name from an old castle, now so ruinous as not to afford
materials for a sketch.
Running out from the land in a western direction, and about
a mile in length, is the long, low, narrow Island of Inishmica-
treer, containing a few cottages, the meagre ruins of an an-
cient church, and also a burial ground. Of this ecclesiastical
building we have no account ; and there is not a single stone
left whereby to judge of its style. It is, however, probable
that on this island, as well as on the neighbouring one of
Inchiquin, to which it is second in size, may have been erected
one of those religious establishments referred to the times of
Brendan, Meldan, and Fursseus ; for there is great difficulty
in determining the precise topography of many of the places
in this district mentioned by the hagiologists ; and when Col-
gan wrote he was evidently not personally acquainted with
the locality, and his sources of research were chiefly Conti-
nental. The shores of this island abound with those peculiar
perforated limestones already referred to at page 29 ; and at
the eastern end they form a causeway, which, with the aid
of " a plank," connects it in summer time with the main-
land. This peninsular position may afford a derivation for the
name of Inish-mic-tree?*, or tier, " the island of the land."*
* By one of those extraordinary inconsistencies in Irish topography,
this island, which is in the Mayo waters, and can be reached dryshod
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF CROSS. 151
Taking up our itinerary where we left it, at the north-west-
ern angle of the parish of Shrule, we meet the little churchyard
of Billapark, one of a group of several such which stud this
corner of the parish of Cong. Then we approach Hounds-
wood, the seat of John S. Dawson, Esq., a little to the
north-west of which commences, with Caher-Mayo, that vast as-
semblage of stone forts, cairns, and circles, that culminate at
Nymphsfield ; and to which, occupying as they do the site
of the great battle of Moytura, it will be necessary to devote
a special chapter.
The river of Cross, already alluded to at page 23, opens
into the northern end of a deep bay, surrounded on the north
by the woods of Ballymagibbon, the residence of the Fynn
family. In this deep bay there are a great number of small
islands, upon one of which (Gibbs'), near "The salt house,"f
there are persons now living who remember the timbers of a
from the parish of Shrule, forms a part of the parish of Killannin, nearly
ten miles distant across the lake, on the Galway shore. It is said that,
when the O'Flahertys were driven from their territory of Magh Seola, on
the east, to Gnomore and Gnobeg, on the west of Lough Corrib, " they
took their islands with them," or retained possession of them, and this
may account for the isolated position of this portion of Killannin.
t " The Salt House," a very notable building on the shore of Lough
Corrib ; is so called from one of the author's ancestors having erected it
when salt was very scarce in Connaught for the manufacture of that ma-
terial. Sea water and rock salt were brought from Galway, and here
turned by evaporation into the edible material. The salt pans existed
within the last twentv vears.
102 (ROSS VILLAGE.
surrounding stockade rising above low water ; so that it may
fairly be conjectured, that crannoges existed here and in
other parts of Lough Corrib in early times.
Two roads on the west, and two others on the east, uniting
at acute angles on each side of a small river running into
Lough Corrib, give, together with a mill, dispensary, bridge,
schoolhouse, a couple of shops, some cottages, a forge, and a
public house, &c, the name of " Cross" to a village of some
note and antiquity.
About half a mile to the north-east of this village, on the
Kilmain road, stands an antique quadrangular tower, commonly
known as •' The Castle of Cross ;" and attached to its eastern
side are the ruins of an early, and in some of its architectural
details rather interesting church, of which the two following cuts
are highly illustrative, although it has not been thought worthy
of recognition on the Ordnance Maps. The tower, which is ex-
ceedingly massive and well built, is now 22 feet high, and mea-
sures 25 feet on the east, and 16 on the south side : and its walls
are 3 feet 3 inches thick. It has a narrow lio-ht on each face ;
and its pointed doorway, leading from the church, opens into a
stone-roofed apartment, topped by another similar chamber, the
only access to which is by a square aperture in the floor over
the outer doorway, like those seen in secular defensive edifices.
In all probability this tower, which was evidently constructed
along with the church, was used not merely as a belfry, but as
a residence for the clerics, and in troubled times a place of se-
THE CASTLE AND CHURCH OF CROSS.
153
curity for the people and the ecclesiastical valuables, just as it
is believed the round towers were. A great many churches
in Ireland of the same architectural character as that of Cross
are furnished with towers ; and, as if carrying out the idea
of the primitive round tower, their architects have almost
invariably placed their doorways at a considerable distance
above the ground. A striking example occurs at Corcom-
roe, in Clare, where the only opening giving access to the
belfry tower is a square-headed doorway, placed about twelve
feet from the ground. The church itself is 40 feet long
and 19 wide, on the inside. Its northern w r all is 13 feet
6 inches high, and the east gable is still standing, but formed
of small stones, undressed, except at the angles, and in the
double-lighted eastern window. The latter is deserving of a
careful inspection, as its masonry exhibits a curious instance
of economy and adaptation. The superincumbent weight of
104
EAST WINDOW OF CROSS CHURCH.
the gable is relieved by a solid arch of undressed stone be-
low. Although the division between the lights, and also their
outer edges, are all composed
of chiselled stone, their inner
jambs, a portion of the splays,
and all the soffit and arches,
are ingeniously constructed of
carefully-selected blocks, that
do not show the slightest trace
of either chisel, punch, or
hammer, as may be seen in
the accompanying illustration.
Although there are many le-
gends afloat anent caillaghs,
witches with black hafted
knives, " weird sisters," and belated travellers, there is no
real history of this building. It is situated in the townland
of " Attyickard," as it is spelled on the map, but the proper
name of which is Ath-Teach-Ricard, " The site of Richard's
House," probably because a Burke had a hand in the con-
struction of its castellated tower. To the south and west
may be seen in a few minutes' walk several ancient remains —
circles, forts, traces of Pagan sepultures, and caves — one of the
latter in particular sunk in the middle of a fort, adjoining
the site of the dilapidated village of the same name as the
townland, is worthy of inspection.
KILFRAUGHAUN,
155
Returning to Cross, and in the grounds of Thomas Gildea,
Esq., at Dowagh, we must visit one of the very oldest primi-
tive Cyclopean churches in Ireland, and undoubtedly the most
remarkable that occurs in our route — that of St. Fraughaun,
the square-headed western doorway of which is here faithfully
shown. Its walls are now 7
feet high on an average, and
2 feet thick ; its length is 18
feet intside, 12 wide at the
west, and 14 in breadth at
the east end — a remarkable
peculiarity. There are no
remains of window apertures,
as the east gable is no longer
standing. The doorway here
figured is 5 feet 8 inches
high, and 2 feet 3 inches
wide at bottom, the jambs
inclining to 1 foot 11 inches
at top, where they are covered by a massive lintel, 3 feet 5
inches long, which spans the entire wall. The inner faces of
the jamb stones are smooth, as at Killursa.
That this building is a representative of the primitive Ora-
tory and dwelling house of an early Irish saint, there can be no
doubt. It was divided into an upper and lower apartment by
a flat floor, some of the corbels of which yet remain ; and the
156 KILFRAUGHAUN.
space between this and the roof was, no doubt, the saint's sleep-
ing apartment. We find the same arrangement in St. Kevin's
Kitchen, St. Columba's House at Kells, Molua's House, and
other buildings of the same peculiar class. The only difference
between Kilfraughan and the others just mentioned is, that it
had a dividing floor of timber, and the others one of stone,
resting upon a barrel arch. This charming little ruin, which
stands in the middle of a very ancient burial ground, and is
surrounded by antique hollies and thorns, is highly venerated
by the people, among whom there is a tradition, that from it
was brought the clay with which the Abbey of Cong, was
consecrated.
Of St. Fraughaun, if such a personage existed here, we
know nothing ; and our annals, calendars, martyrologies, and
the saints' lives make no mention of him. The ancient name of
this church, and one which is still living among the old peo-
ple, is Kill-ard-creave-na-Naoimh — literally, " the church of the
high branch of the saints." Below its east end is a spring
well of never-failing purity and supply, which, in fine wea-
ther, when the great turloughs are dry, affords water for the
neighbouring mill, and pours its stream into the Cross river.*
* Within the precincts of this little church stands the tomb of a very
memorable man in his day and generation, and by his life affording a type of
many of the gentry of the West during the past century and a half. Well,
with all your i'aults, Dick Blake, I cannot but remember how well you taught
me to ride, keeping my " hands low down on the saddle" — what skilful di-
KILLARSAGH CHURCH.
157
To the north of this locality is Garracloon, the property and
residence of Colonel Veitch.
Continuing our route on to the village of Cong, through the
great cairn-studded plain of Moytura, we meet another small
ancient church called Killarsagh, in the townland of Ballyma-
gibbon, of which 12 feet high of the east gable, with a small,
round arched window in it, still
remains, as shown in the accom-
panying cut ; as also so much of
the side walls as to give the mea-
surement of its interior as 24 feet
long by 16 J feet broad.* Again,
a little nearer the lake, in the vil-
lage of Gortachurra, " the field
of the curragh" scrub or bot-
tom, there formerly existed the
ruins of a very small church,
some of the large stones of which
may still be discerned in the adjoining walls and cottages.
From the hill of Tonlegee, overlooking this latter locality,
was taken the accompanying view of Moytura House, the re-
rections for shooting, and training setters and pointers, you gave me ; and
with what pride you used to see me shoot the rising trout from off the bridge
of Cross .... years ago. — W. R. W.
* In the wall of this church there was, a few years ago, a carved stone,
having in relief the figure of a child. It is now built into a coach-house
in the vicinity.
158
MOYTURA HOl'SK.
sidence of the Author, erected in 1865 ; and so called after the
ancient battle-field on which it stands, with Benlevi Mountain
in the distance, and Lough Corrib in front. The tower with
the flagstaff stands within the enclosure of one of the ancient
cahers of the battle field. This house commands a magnificent
prospect to the west, south, and east, and can be seen from
most parts of the middle lake. To the west of Moytura is Lac-
kafinna — "the white flagstone" — the residence of Ormsby El-
wood, Esq; ; and still nearer to Cong, over a small bay of the
lake, stands Lisloughrey — " the rushy liss," or earthen fort —
the residence of William Burke, Esq.
We have passed the last navigation mark, and laid our
course nearly due north towards the Cong river. From this
point the mountain view presents one of its best aspects ; and
the shores of Mayo and Galway, sloping down to the water's
CONG RIVER. 109
edge, are in many places pleasingly wooded. Leaving Coad
Island on the left, we get among a group of islets at the mouth
of the river, the outermost of which, Illaunree, or "the king's
island," was said to have been a favourite retreat of O'Conor,
the last Irish monarch, while sojourning in the neighbouring
abbey ; and nearer the shore are Inish-Cong and Illaundarra.
Now, dividing the waters of Mayo and Galway, we pass
Cannaderry, "the peninsular headland," and enter the principal
streamway which conducts the waters of Lough Mask into
Lough Corrib. Well sheltered, wooded on both sides, having
Kinlough on the right, the demesne of Ashford on the left,
and Standhill, the seat of the Elwoods, in front, with the pretty
spire of the parish church in the distance, it forms a picture of
great beauty. The following illustration, taken from the eastern
shore, represents the " Eglinton" passing under the demesne of
Ashford, the noble seat of Sir B. L. Guinness, M. P., with his
recently erected tower rising over the surrounding woods.
Our steamer has been warped round the little island, and
brought to her berth alongside the quay.* We leave her for
the present ; and, starting for " The Carlisle Arms," in the vil-
lage about half a mile distant, may visit two of the natural
caves for which this locality is celebrated — The Lady's Buttery
* In the river opposite Kinlough, the residence of Mr. Moran, at a place
called Cushatruffe, "the foot of the stream," there is a small island round
which the steamer is usually warped, but the removal of which would form a
basin in which the vessel could easily turn.
160
ASHFORD.
and the Horse Discovery, which both adjoin the road. Here,
as we pass along by the canal referred to at page 35, we get
a good view of the parish church,* the Koman Catholic chapel,
and the eastern gable and window of the abbey, which with the
history and antiquities of this ancient locality, will be described
in the next chapter.
* The simple architectural church of Cong, to which the lord of the soil
has added a well-proportioned spire, is very well placed in an island between
the land and two of the rivers. The chapel, for which a beautiful site was
lately offered in the village, is placed within the abbey grounds, and is at
present in process of reconstruction.
CHAPTER VII.
coxg.
(JONG VILLAGE. RIVERS. ANNALS. ST. FECHIN. THE ABBEY, AND ITS
HISTORY. THE o'dUFFYS. IRELAND'S LAST MONARCH. ASHFORD. THE
STREET CROSS. THE IRISH LANGUAGE. RELIQUES ; THE TRUE CROSS J
THE TOOTH OF ST. PATRICK. THE BLACK BELL. WAYSIDE MONU-
MENTS. THE CASTLE OF AUGHALARD. CAVES. THE PIGEON HOLE.
CONG — in Irish, Cunga, " a neck," so called from its situation
upon the isthmus that here divides Lough Mask from Lough
Corrib, and also Conga- Fechin, in remembrance of its patron
saint — is an island formed by a number of streams that sur-
round it on all sides. There is water everywhere — gliding by
in the broad river ; gushing from the surrounding rocks ; boiling
up in vast pools that supply several mills ; oozing through the
crevices of stones ; rising in the interior of caverns ; appearing
and disappearing wherever its wayward nature wills ; passing
in and out everywhere, except where man tried to turn it — into
the monster dry canal. The village, which is approachable by
four bridges, and occupies a small hill, is T-shaped, and con-
sisted in 1861 of 88 houses, and 469 inhabitants. It is a
market town, and was formerly a great milling depot ; to which
M
162 THE ANNALS OF CONG.
latter circumstance, and the patronage of the adjoining exten-
sive ecclesiastical establishment, it no doubt owed its origin.
As the tourist approaches it, a good view of the eastern end
of its old abbey is presented ; and, turning up by the main
street, he has before him the base of the ancient cross, figured
and described at page 185.
Outside the confines of this village, the scene presents a
remarkable contrast — upon the south and east, all is bare, grey
limestone rock ; while on the west and south lies a beautiful,
well-wooded, and highly cultivated demesne, through which
glides the clear stream of the Cong River, up the lower por-
tion of which we passed in the "Eglinton." The eastern roads
lead to The Neale, Ballinrobe, and Kilmain, and by Headford
to Galway ; and its south-western to Lough Mask, and through
the Joyce's Country by Maam into Connamara. The northern
and western streams divide the village from the county of
Galway.
The Annals of Cong, which, if all collected, would almost
form a history of Ireland, might commence with the battle of
Moytura, stated by the bards, and believed by the early writers,
(where they assign dates to events), to have been fought in the
year of the world 3303. For some centuries after that period,
and down to the Christian era, the great plain to the west and
north immediately adjoining this village, and on which the
battle took place, was thickly studded with inhabitants, whose
dwellings and monuments the tourist is now about to visit, and
ST. FECHIN. 163
which are certainly amongst the most remarkable in the British
Isles. It does not appear, either from history or tradition,
that St. Patrick or his attendants visited Cong, or that his im-
mediate successors approached nearer to it than Inchangoill ;
but, in the seventh century, St. Fechin of Fore, struck, per-
haps, with the extraordinary resemblance which the natural
features of Cong, and its underground rivers, &c, bore to his
ecclesiastical home in Westmeath, is said to have blessed this
neck of land, from which the extensive parish of Cong still
takes its name, and to have erected a church here ; and the
good man left his track, and gave his name to several holy
wells and churches in the district westward of this village.
It is also said that, so early as A. D. 624, an Irish king,
Domhnall Mac Aedh Mac Ainmire, founded an abbey here,
and that St. Fechin was its first abbot. The hagiologists, or
saints' historians, must settle this question. Colgan also states
that Cong was <{ celebrated for divers churches, as their walls
and remains at this day testify." Such may have been the
case at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but they
no longer exist, and the name of only one remains, attached
to the field of the Killeen-breac, or "little speckled church,"
* St. Fechin died of the great yellow plague, or Buidhe Chonnaile, that
twice devastated Ireland, first in 539, and then in 664 ; for which, and other
pestilences, see the Author's collected references in his dissertation on the
subject in " The Tables of Deaths,"' published among the Census Reports
for 1851, Part v., vol. i., pp. 50 and 416, &c.
M 2
1154
THE BULLAUN STONE.
'M
to the south of the present abbey grounds. There is, how-
ever, a stone near the river side, in an old garden to the left
of the second eastern bridge, which takes precedence of all
other stones in Cong, upon which the craft of man had been
exercised in Christian times, and which, as known by the Irish
name of Leach-na-poll, or the " flagstone of the holes," is
here figured. It is a large triangular red grit flag, 2 feet
thick, and 8 J feet
long in its great-
est diameter, from
under which a ne-
ver-failing limpid gn
spring issues. Its 4%
upper surface is jj
hollowed into five
basin-like smooth excavations, averaging 12 inches wide, and
4^ deep, and usually known as Bullauns, from the Latin bulla,
a bowl ; and which, from their being invariably found in im-
mediate connexion with the most ancient churches, may be
regarded as primitive baptismal fonts. — See page 147.
What description of church St. Fechin erected here and
dedicated to the Virgin before his death, in 664, or where it
stood, is unknown, although Colgan states, in the Acta Sanc-
torum, that it w T as " his own monastery." But in truth the
Irish church of that period w T as but the daimliag, or domh-
nach, already described at page 107 ; and the Culdees or
THE BISHOPRIC OF CONG. 165
early ecclesiastics lived either within it, or in stone cells, or
cloghaunes, or in wooden houses, in the surrounding enclo-
sure, and occasionally in the adjoining round tower.
Cong was originally a bishopric, and with those of Tuam,
Killala, Clonfert, and Ardcharne, was named among the five
sees of the province of Connaught, regulated by the Synod
of Rath-Breasill, in Leagh (the present Queen's County), in
the year 1010 ;* but, as stated at page 64, the see was shortly
afterwards removed to Enaghdun. Keating also styled it a
bishopric.
In 1114 the Annals of the Four Masters state that Cunga,
with Kilbanon and several other ecclesiastical establishments,
"were all burned this year." The bishopric removed, and the
cathedral burned ; but the odour of sanctity still clinging to the
venerable locality, hallowed by the remembrance of St. Fechin,
a fine opening offered to the Augustinians to display their
architectural taste, and to establish their ecclesiastical power
in Connaught — so that probably between the former date and
1127-28, when the deaths of two of its Airenaghs (or con-
ventual superiors), Gilla-Keerin O'Roda, and O'Draeda, are re-
* " This synod made the following decree respecting Connaught : —
' If the clergy of Connaught be satisfied with the division, we are well
pleased ; but if not, let the division be made according to their own plea-
sure, onlie they shall have but five bishops in the province of Connaught.' " —
See Hardiman's additional notes to O'Flaherty's " H-Iar Connaught,''
p. 155,
166 THE AU6USTTNIANS.
corded, the abbey and monastery were founded. This mag-
nificent establishment was erected for Canons Kegular of the
Order of St. Augustine, whose vast territories and rich pos-
sessions extended not merely throughout Connaught, but into
several counties in the South and East of Ireland ;* in whose
keeping were placed the great family deeds and records of
the West country chieftains and landed proprietors ; who con-
structed the grandest piece of metal work of its age now ex-
tant in Europe ; whose principal was a Lord Abbot ; and
who left us the beautiful structure we are now hastening to
examine.
To fill up, however, the middle distance, and paint the
foreground of the historic picture of Cong after the erection
of its abbey and monastery, without stopping to notice the
accession or to record the deaths of its dignitaries, we find
it the peaceful sanctuary of the last monarch of Ireland during
the ruthless times which followed the English invasion, when
the O'Conors and O'Donnells, sometimes joining with, and
sometimes fighting against, the Anglo-Normans, devastated the
country, pillaging and burning the abbeys and churches, and
then slaughtering one another ; — down through the dark period
of Saxon misrule and legalized injustice, when the white-
rocheted friars formed their last long-winding procession, as,
* The property of the Abbey of Cong, and especially their great es-
tates in Joyce-Country and Connamara, were, in the reign of Elizabeth,
granted to the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin.
THE REIGN OF MISRULE. 167
passing out of their beauteous abbey they wound their way
with lingering footsteps over the adjoining bridge, and took
their lompo-tuaghfil, or "left-handed turn," ere they cast a final
look upon its tall tower and peaked gables, cutting sharp
and clear against the western sky.
The Augustinian monks have departed — the bells have
tolled their last peal ; the altar lights are extinguished ; a
few valuables, snatched in haste, have been preserved, and
Cong is a ruin — whence every sculptured stone that could
be removed was built into the hovels around — and which
was barely held together by the fostering arms of the luxu-
riant ivy, until lately cleared of rubbish, and its mullioned
windows and decorated doorways carefully restored.
What an eventful period has intervened, during which
Cong and its environs were granted to the Kings and Bing-
hams, or were possessed by the O'Donnells and the Brownes —
when Macnamara, the freebooter, and Webb, the murderer,
left tales for the guides and their gaping auditors to batten
upon — when it was attempted to alter and amend religious
opinion by persecution and penal enactments — when law, if at
all administered without the aid of the cudgel or the horse-
whip, was an injustice : and clerical magistrates (not in the
days of Cromwell) could command the regular army to re-
move from public view a stone bearing the name of two vener-
able, and perhaps pious, ecclesiastics, who flourished here some
eight hundred years ago !
168 THE INCUMBERED ESTATES.
Governmental confiscations of property there were in abun-
dance. Debts accumulated as the result of reckless extrava-
gance, contested elections, unsuccessful horse racing. Chancery
suits transmitted for generations, bills of cost, interest on loans,
and mortgages — the dowers of dowagers, and the jointures of
grandmothers and aunts. All these kept the gentry poor ; but
they were tolerably loyal to the State, which sheltered them in a
country where the king's writ did not run. The people were
also poor, and likewise ignorant, improvident, and uneducated,
although far superior to the same class in the sister country ;
but they were disloyal — not so much on account of Protestant-
ism, tithes, Catholic disabilities, the want of educational re-
sources, or any other real or sentimental grievance, but because
they had never been conquered by either force, justice, or
kindness. However, wdiat diplomacy and the sword could not
effect for so many centuries, a single night of blight, followed
by a few years' failure of the tuber introduced by Raleigh,
achieved. It cut off almost in a moment the food of an entire
nation. The rent ceased ; the mortgagees were unpaid ; the
agents failed ; the poor rates could not be collected. Pestilence
followed the famine ; the herds diminished ; the workhouses
buried such of the dead as had not fallen by the wayside ;
emigration helped off the remaining living ; the Incumbered
Estates Court sold up the bankrupt landlords, as in a sheriff's
sale, and often at half the value of the land ; the old proper-
ties changed hands ; and, although hundreds of thousands were
THE FAMINE AND ITS EFFECTS. 169
lost both to the owners and creditors, new blood was infused,
and new life and energy thrown into the country. And now,
the old Abbey of Cong, and the adjoining estates, with many
a mile to westward of this famed locality, haA r e been purchased
with the produce of ability, honest industry, and successful
commercial enterprise.*
The ruins of Cong church and monastery occupy the south-
western angle of the island, but have become so mixed up with
modern buildings, that it is now difficult to find a point of view
from which to give a good representation of the entire. The
succeeding illustration, taken upwards of forty years ago by
Samuel Lover, E. H. A., from a point somewhat to the north-
east of the bridge of the Killeen-breac, so truthfully represents
the scene, that with his permission it is introduced upon the
following page.f
Among the splendid ecclesiastical remains of Cong, the
twelfth century advocates may revel, and defy us to prove an
earlier date for their erection than that of the introduction of
* What a great and memorable chronicle it would form, and possibly
one beneficial to future generations, could the following be tabulated : —
The original name of each territory, and by what tribe or chieftain pos-
sessed — into what hands such estates passed, extending over many centuries,
which could in most instances be done — who last possessed it ; how it was
acquired ; by what means it was incumbered when put up for auction ; and,
finally, who purchased it, and how the price of it was created.
t See the " Irish Penny Magazine" for January, 1841, with a memoir on
Cong, by the late John D' Alton.
170
THE RUINS OF CONG.
the Augustinian order into Ireland, even if their ornamentation
and design did not afford ample data for judging of their age.
These ruins would scarcely have held together to the pre-
sent day, had not Sir B. L. Guinness restored several of the
dilapidations, cleared out much of the rubbish which had ac-
cumulated within and around them, and rendered the burial
ground sufficiently decent for the interment of Christian peo-
ple.* As the following observations, made nearly thirty years
* Among the restorations lately effected may be particularly specified,
those of the completion of the arch over the central light of the east window,
and the introduction of the missing stones in the decorated doors and win-
dows of the beautiful western fa qade, described at p. 179. All these resto-
rations were carved from the native limestone by Mr. Peter Foy, of Cong,
and his work bears careful comparison with that of the original artist.-.
CONG THIRTY YEARS AGO. 171
ago upon this abbey by that keen observer, graphic, witty de-
scribes and patriotic antiquary, Caesar Otway, faithfully accord
with our own early recollections of Cong, we here insert them
in order that the contrast may be the more striking : — " Though
the Connaught abbeys suffered less waste and demolition from
those who originally suppressed them, the busy and fond super-
stition that turned their interior into places of much- desired se-
pulture, has defaced and destroyed what the avarice of Henry's
courtiers and the curse of Cromwell had spared ; and so -there
is now no one to care for and protect an Irish abbey — it, instead
of being allowed to repose in the much-respected solitude of a
Tintern, a Bolton, or Fountains, in England, is now anything but
beautiful, it is not even decent ; the genius loci, outraged, we
might almost personify as weeping, while all round is disgraced
and desecrated." And, after describing the rooting pigs and
the rioting boys that he found enjoying themselves among the
ruins, he adds, " Whoever enters an Irish abbey, let him be
Protestant or Eomanist, must sigh for some law appointing con-
servators* able to restrain the ignorant and reckless hands
* A few years ago, long after the foregoing was written, the author, and
other members of The Celtic Society, had considerable trouble in rescuing
from destruction the sculptured tombs in the old church of Lusk, and in the
Port- Lester chapel attached to St. Audoen's Church, in Dublin, which were
about to be sold as " old materials'' to contractors by the Irish Ecclesias-
tical Commissioners, composed of archbishops, bishops, judges, and others
" learned in the law," but neither versed in the history of their country, nor
anxious to preserve the monuments of the past.
172 THE CULDEE AND HIS HOME.
that are, day after clay, obliterating the religious monuments of
the island. And here let me be allowed another remark re-
specting the, to me, evident difference that exists between the
monastic remains previous and subsequent to the Anglo-Nor-
man conquest. Of the former we find no remains that were
not directly devoted to religious worship, churches, oratories,
crypts, and shrines (except the round towers, which alone
seem to have answered any secular purpose). The old Irish
monastic, in his Culdee simplicity, was contented with his little
hermitage composed of wattles, his humble cell of perishable
materials ; living on the milk of a few cows, and the fish that
the adjoining river (as at Cong) abundantly supplied ; enough
for him was the conviction, that at the approach of the barba-
rous spoiler he could retreat, with his vestments and holy things,
by means of a ladder, into the round tower, through its high-
placed door ; from thence to see his humble cell committed to
the flames, there to bear the privations he was so well accus-
tomed to, until the ravagers retreated, and the tyranny was
overpast." And, of Cong, he further adds, " I have seldom,
indeed, seen a place so dilapidated ; I was not only disap-
pointed, but vexed, to see it so overthrown and dismantled."*
We enter the abbey from the village by a very beautiful
doorway, which, although it has been often figured, we would
* See the Rev. Csesar Otway's " Tour in Connaught," 1839.
o'conor's TOMB. 1 (o
liere present to our readers, but that we know it is of the " com-
posite order," having been made up some years ago of stones
taken from another arch in this northern wall. Within it, we
find ourselves in the great abbey church, 140 feet long, en-
tirely paved with tombstones ; — facing the east window, with
its three long, narrow lights, and having in each side wall of
the chancel a slender window looking north and south. The
chancel walls are perfect, but the northern wall of the nave no
longer exists. Underneath the chancel window the guides and
village folk maintain that Roderick O'Conor was buried, when,
after fifteen years' retirement within this abbey, he died here in
1198. But this we know from history to be incorrect, for the
Donegal Annals distinctly state that " Ruodri Ua Concobair,
King of Connaught and of all Ireland, both the Irish and Eng-
lish, died among the canons at Cong, after exemplary penance,
victorious over the world and the devil. His body was con-
veyed to Clonmacnois, and interred on the north side of the
altar."
But, although Roderick himself was not buried here, others
of his name and lineage were. Thus we read that, in 1224,
"Maurice the Canon, son of Roderick O'Conor — the most illus-
trious of the Irish "for learning psalm-singing and poetical com-
positions, died — and was interred at Cong." It is probably his
tomb which is pointed out as that of the king. " A. D. 1226,
Nuala, daughter of Roderick O'Conor, and Queen of Ulidia,
died at Conga Fechin, and was honourably interred in the
174 THE LAST ABBOT OF CONG.
church of the canons."* And, in 1247, Finola, daughter of
King Roderick, died at, and was probably buried at, Cong.
But, although the dust of the last monarch is not beneath
our feet, that of chieftains, warriors, and prelates remains, and
especially that of the abbots, down to the days of James Lynch,
whose decorated tomb is dated 1703; and even later, for the
Rev. Patrick Prendergast, who was always styled "The Lord
Abbot," *was interred here in 1829.f
Several of these ecclesiastical tomb flags are decorated with
crosses, fleur-de-lis, chalices, and ornate croziers, &c; and there
are a few Latin inscriptions in raised letters, but with one ex-
ception no Irish writing can be discerned anywhere within the
confines of the abbey. In the south wall there is a recess, with
* " Annals of the Four Masters." Nuala was " the wife of Mae
Donslevy, who was at that period styled King of Uladh," or that por-
tion of Ulster " lying eastwards of Glenree, Lough Neagh, and the Lower
Bann." — See O'Donovan's note, under a. d. 1226.
•j- There is a tradition that, when the few remaining Canons were driven
forth from this monastery, they were harboured by some of the author's an-
cestors at Ballymagibbon ; and upon one of the farms of that property, now
called Abbotstown, Father Prendergast resided till the day of his death, at
the round age of eighty-eight. He was a very fine, courteous, white-haired
old man — a good specimen of the St. Omers' priest of sixty years ago. He
did not nominate a successor, nor was such appointed by any Irish chapter,
or by the General Abbot at Rome. Prendergast succeeded Abbot O'Maley.
He was the owner of several reliques, which he used to take great pride in
showing and explaining to the author, when a boy — the cross of Cong, the
shrine of St. Patrick's tooth, and the piece of linen marked with the blood
of the martyr, &c — See pages 188 to 196, &c.
THE TERMINAL CROSS.
175
a circular arch, probably the tomb of the founder, or some mu-
nificent endower ; there are also in his south wall piscinae, and
other minor details of church architecture, unnecessary to
describe ; and lower down upon the same side is the small
chapel-tomb of the Berminghams, once so powerful in Ireland,
and who so identified themselves with their adopted country,
that they dropped the Norman name, and assumed that of
Mac Feoris. They became Lords of Athenry, and acquired
great possessions in Connaught.*
During the clearances recently made, a few objects of inte-
rest were discovered, and among them a stone, bearing a portion
of the incised cross here figured.
It is too narrow to have been a
monumental nap-, the longest arm
of the cross being but thirteen
inches ; it was probably one of
the terminal crosses that marked
the boundaries of the ancient
sacred enclosure.
Another stone of still greater
interest, discovered in making
these restorations, is the quadrangular fragment of the shaft of
an ancient cross, which in all probability is a portion of the
* The late Earls of Leitrim and Charlemont married the last two of
the female line of the Mayo and Galway Berminghams, who held the
Ross-Hill and other large estates westward of Cong.— See p. 189.
170
o' duffy's cross.
village cross referred to at page 185 ; for not only docs it bear
the same names as those on the base of the latter, but it ac-
curately fits the mortise in that plinth, being 16 inches by 8.
This stone, now about 2 feet high, and the two inscribed faces
of which upon opposite sides are here figured, is at present
placed in the east Avindow.
The inscription, which is in
ancient raised letters, means —
A prayer for Niahol and Gille-
bard O'Dubthaigh, or O'Duffy, who were abbots of Cong ; but
which inscription is more perfect on the plinth of the market
cross, figured and described at page 185.
The O'DufTys were distinguished ecclesiastics in this lo-
cality, and the Annals contain many entries concerning them.
Thus we read that in " A. D. 1150 Muireadhach Ua Dubh-
thaigh, Archbishop of Connaught, chief senior of all Ireland
in wisdom, in chastity, in the bestowal of jewels and food,
died at Conga on the 16th of the month of May, on the festi-
val of St. Brenainn, in the 75th year of his age. 1 ' His name
is inscribed on the great processional " Cross of Cong," made
in 1123. — Sec page 194.
the o'duffys. 177
"A. D. 1168. Flannagan Ua Dubhthaigh, bishop and chief
doctor of the Irish in literature, history, and poetry, and in
every kind of science known to man in his time, died in the
bed of Mnireadhach Ua Dubhthaigh, at Cunga." — See page 196.
Cadhla or Catholicus 'Duffy, and several of the name,
attained to the see of Tuam ; in 1136, we read of the death
at Clonfert, of Donnell O'Duffy, " Archbishop of Connaught,
and successor of Ciaran, head of the wisdom and piety of the
province ;" and Kele O'Duffy was Bishop of " Mayo of the
Saxons " in 1209. But none of these died abbots of Cong,
and the only Abbot of the name referred to in the Annals is
the one described by the Four Masters in the following quo-
tation, under the year 1223 : —
"Oubcach ua bubcaigh abb Con^a Oecc.
" Duffagh O'Duffy, Abbot of Cong, died."
As to who this " Gillibard," or Gilla-Bard, was, we have no
clue from an examination of the Annals, and cannot, there-
fore, state when his death occurred ; but it must have been
subsequent to that of Duffagh and Niahol ; and was probably
in the beginning of the thirteenth century.
Before leaving this church and its crosses, let us perform an
act of partial expiation, by introducing to the visitor the follow-
ing illustration, showing the four decorated sides of a portion of
the shaft of a very beautiful sandstone cross, which was ab-
stracted from these ruins many years ago, but is still in exis-
N
178
THE MOYTURA CROSS.
tence* The two end portions of the illustration represent the
sides ; the left-hand middle is the front, and the right the
gp
l^p^
§1
sii^)ii
IPS
back, which latter is countersunk, evidently for the insertion
of a metal plate, which was probably inscribed with the name
of the person who erected it, or to whose memory it was
raised. The top is mortised for the reception of the tenon
of the upper portion of the shaft.
The original plan of this abbey is not easily made out at
present. Through an arched doorway in the southern wall
* This cross, which is now 23 inches high, is in the pleasure-ground
at Moy tura, and is by some believed to have been in the possession of the
late Father Prendergast. Others say it was rescued from the dilapidations
at Cong by the late Mr. Fynn, the author's relative, and at that time
proprietor of the Moytura property.
When the broken shaft of O'DufFy's cross, now in the east window, is
restored to its position upon the base of the market or street cross, this
beautiful piece of mediaeval work shall be restored to the abbey.
WESTERN FACADE OF CONG ABBEY.
179
we pass into a low vaulted apartment, and thence into a large
open space containing the principal stairs, which lead up to
the second story of the great tower, the upper portion of
which, however, no longer exists. The space to the east and
south of this, which was formerly occupied by the monastery,
is now a graveyard, and the site of the Koman Catholic chapel,
and is divided by a high screen wall, the western facade of
which forms the present great architectural feature of this splen-
did pile, and is well shown in the subjoined illustration. It
measures 80 feet in length, and contains a doorway and two
windows, with circular arches ; and two large and most elabo-
rately ornamented lancet-headed doors, with under-cut chev-
rons along the deep moulding of the arches, which spring
N 2
180
THE FLORAL CAPITALS OF CONG.
from clustered pillars, the floral capitals of which — all of dif-
ferent patterns — present us with one of the finest specimens of
twelfth century stone-work in Ireland.* This cut represents
a portion of these highly
ornate imposts. Above the
string course appear some
narrow lights, probably those
of the dormitories. To the
west of this wall stood the
open cloisters, which were
probably so low as not to
obscure the decorated front
represented on the forego-
ing page. From this point
the ground slopes gradually to the river, where, according to
tradition, the friars of old had a fish house — the walls of which
are still standing — so constructed that, when the salmon or
trout got into the crib below, it touched a wire, that rang a
bell, to inform the providore or cook of its arrival.
Standing between the river and the abbey, the picture na-
turally rises before us of the aged monarch, broken down by
the calamities which his country was suffering from a foreign
* Several stones have been recently inserted in these doorways, which
now present us with some of the finest and most enduring specimens of
carved limestone in either this or any other country.
THE LAST MONARCH OF IRELAND. 181
invasion, which he was no longer able to resist — but still more
so by the opposition and ingratitude of his own children and
relatives — passing up the river with his retinue, landing here
in 1183, and received by the Lord Abbot and his canons
and friars ; and then taking leave of his faithful adherents at
the water's edge, being conducted in procession to the abbey,
which, it is said, his munificence had endowed. There, as a
recluse untrammelled by the weight of state affairs, and pos-
sibly unaffected by the quarrels of his chieftains and kins-
folk, the Last Monarch of Ireland, abdicating his authority
because the country no longer supported him, died, a sad,
but fitting and prophetic emblem of the land over which he
had ruled.
Within the abbey grounds, on the north-west, formerly stood
the ruins of Macnamara's house, which Bishop Pococke, writ-
ing in the year 1770, says, was the most delightfully-situated
residence he had seen in the course of his travels ; a fragment
of it still remains. More to the west there recently existed
the residence of the late proprietor, A. C. Lambert, Esq.,
constructed of the unhewn, weather-worn, but square stones,
collected in the locality. Being no longer required, and not
being quite congruous with the scene, it has been removed.
Passing under an arch,* and over a bridge lately con-
* The antiquary may think that the royal head with which the key-
stone of this arch is decorated should have been crowned with an Irish
diadem, and not an English crown.
182
ASHFORD HOUSE.
structed of immense flagstones taken from the river's becL we
pass into Ashford, the demesne of Sir B. L. Guinness, the
view of whose residence, taken from near the quay, is figured
below. Let another describe it, and its environs. " Whether,"
says Sir Bernard Burke, in alluding to Cong, " you consider
its unbounded fertility, the varied beauties of its surface, or
the historical events which invest every plain and every moun-
tain with an interest peculiarly its own, it stands forth to the
lover of the wild and the beautiful, to the antiquarian and
the geologist as unsurpassed by any portion of the British
Empire. And we do not hesitate to insist that in this island,
so favoured, the ancient town and neighbourhood of Cong
a.nhford. 183
are pre-eminent ; in each of the particulars above alluded to,
this portion of the counties of Galway and Mayo is unrivalled
in its peculiarities. It presents a varied surface of contra-
dictory elements — streams of barrenness and fertility, exqui-
site beauty and wild desolation ; green valleys and rocky
plains, lakes and rivers, and huge mountains, are so thrown
together in wild confusion, that it would almost seem as if
nature had wandered here in one of her sportive moods, pro-
ducing on every side such a marvellous contrast and variety.
It is in the loveliest part of this district that the property is
situated, of which we have engaged to furnish a few particu-
lars. Ashford, formerly a residence of Lord Oranmore, oc-
cupies one of the most striking and beautiful sites in the
whole island ; and is situated on the right bank of the river,
which, flowing past the ruins of the ancient abbey of Cong,
is adorned in its short course with all that can constitute the
interesting and picturesque. The writer," and the author also,
" well remembers this mansion, now comfortable, a dilapidated
building, in the midst of a neglected domain — a very picture
of poor Ireland herself when stricken by famine and pesti-
lence. It was built by one of the family of Brown, about a
century and a half ago, somewhat in the style of the French
chateau. The situation was well chosen ; and the founder made
it an exception to the almost genera] rule, that Irish mansions
are erected near to, but not upon, the most eligible spots.
The river, the lake, the deep and solemn woods that environ
184 THE LISHEKNARD.
it, the extreme fertility of the domain — encircled as it were
by a framework of bare rocks and interminable waters — con-
stitute a species of oasis in this wild district, at once lovely,
striking, and peculiar."*
Within the demesne, and in the immediate vicinity of the
handsome tower recently erected here, and shown in the fore-
going illustration, there can be seen one of those arti6cial caves
formed by the ancient Firbolgs, or Tuatha de Dananns, to which
we shall have occasion to refer hereafter ; but, as it is so nigh
at hand, the visitor should inspect it now. This cave, called
Lisheenard, " the small fort of the height," which is sunk with-
in an ancient circular rath, now surrounded with aged hazels,
measures 27 feet from its eastern entrance to its turn to the
south, which latter portion is 24 long. Its average height is
6-J feet ; and it is roofed with immense flags, supported on pro-
jecting corbels, as explained in the general description of these
troglodyte habitations, at page 203. There is also here a na-
tural grotto, called Teach Aille, "the house in the cliff," where
the waters of Lough Mask present themselves externally in
their transit through the various north-western pools and ca-
verns to Lough Corrib. Let us re-cross the river by Toin-a-
Chaislean, "the bottom of the castle," or site of the old castle
of Cong, which certainly existed in the days of Roderick
* See " A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and
Gentlemen of Great Britain ami Ireland," by Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster
King of Arms : 1858, pp. 241, 242.
THE MARKET CROSS OF CONG.
185
O'Flaherty, but the last fragment of which was removed about
twenty years ago, when "the circular road" of Cong was con-
structing.
Now, that we come prepared with historic knowledge, de-
rived from our visit to the abbey, let us inspect the Street or
Market Cross, the dark limestone plinth or base of which, with
a carefully engraved fac simile of its inscription, is here shown,
'M^mm mn R m^ &@miKhi
€im>B @Bm :miglOTnriOw^
re
irm^ otk
the translation being — U A prayer for Niahol [Kicol, or Neal],
and for Gillibard [Gilbert] O'Dubthaidh [O'Duffy], who were
abbots of Cong."* It is 16 inches high, and measures 36 by
30 inches upon the upper surface, into the step or mortise of
which the present shaft in the abbey originally fitted. There
is now a plain modern shaft in its place, the cap of which, to-
gether with the three steps on which the plinth now rests, was
* This inscription — which is in substance the same as above, but not
transcribed from a rubbing — was brought under the notice of the Royal
Irish Academy, in 1855, by the Rev. Dr. Todd, and has been printed in
the Proceedings of that body, vol. vi., p. 225.
186 THE IRISH LANGUAGE.
erected by the Elwood family in the famine year of 1822 : prior
to which the base stood upon a large block of natural rock,
which, however, together with the inscribed base, &c, was re-
moved, as it was regarded as an obstruction to the thorough-
fare.* This inscription is not in the Irish character, but in
the black letter text of the fourteenth century ; and as it is,
perhaps, the last place in our route where we shall meet with
such writing, and as this junction of the counties of Mayo and
Galway affords a fitting place for its introduction, a few words
upon the present statistical condition of the Irish language
may not be inappropriate.
Except the gentry, nearly every person, young or old, in
this parish speaks the Irish, and many do not use any other
tongue. When Hely Dutton wrote his Statistical (?) Survey of
the County of Galway, in 1824, he remarked upon the increase
of the English language in the West, and repeated the well-
known adage, that "The natives of Ulster have the right phrase,
but not the pronunciation ; Munster, the pronunciation, but not
the phrase ; Leinster has neither ; Connaught has both." The
first Census of the Irish-speaking population was taken in 1851, f
* This is the circumstance alluded to at p. 168. After the inscribed stone
had been removed as an " offender" to the barracks, the gentleman who had
it taken down placed it a little way to the north of the abbey door ; but the
popular feeling was so strongly expressed upon the subject, that it was even-
tually restored to its former site, where it now stands.
f At the instance of the author, then one of the Census Commissioners.
THE IRISH-SPEAKING POPULATION. 187
and then it was found that, in a population of 6,574,278, as
many as 233 per cent, spoke Irish ; but ten years subsequently
a decrease of 4-2 per cent, had taken place throughout the
country in this respect, as in March, 1861, when the last Census
was taken, and the total number of inhabitants was 5,798,967,
the entire Irish-speaking population amounted to only 1,105,536,
or 19*1 per cent. Of these, 163,275, spoke Irish only, and the
remainder professed a vernacular knowledge of both languages.
Comparatively few literate persons could either read or write
Irish. In 1851 more than half the inhabitants of the province
of Connaught could speak their native language ; even still the
counties of Galway and Mayo afford the greatest number of
Irish-speaking people, and in 1861 as many as 73,740 therein
were returned as unable to speak English. The spoken Gaelic
is hourly dying out ; and in twenty years more the oldest lan-
guage in north-western Europe, if we except that of the Lapps
and other extreme northern tribes, will have ceased to be
used. Fortunately, however, and thanks to the exertions made
by a few patriotic individuals, and to the labours of O'Dono-
van and O'Curry, the written language has been preserved —
for ever.
Had the Irish language been cultivated by the upper classes
as was proposed by many eminent scholars and divines, it
might, perhaps, have had an influence upon many subjects con-
nected with the interests of this country. The old tale is still
repeated, that when Elizabeth, wishing to learn something of
188 THE RELIQUES OF CONG.
the tongue of her Irish dependency, asked for a specimen, this
was repeated to her — Digh dabh dubh uv labh, " A black ox
ate a raw egg 1 — which certainly, when pronounced rapidly, is
not very euphonious, although, perhaps as much so as the reply
said to have been given to her of, " Beg-a-big-egg, beg-a-big-
egg,^ as a specimen of Iter native language. At all events,
the Irish-speaking people never make a grammatical mistake
when conversing in their vernacular, and most usually speak
the English language more correctly than the same classes on
the other side of the Channel.
To follow out the history or annals of Cong in succession
during the fourteenth and subsequent centuries, would be a
mere recital of the dissensions of rival chieftains, the feuds of
hostile clans, or of the Saxon against the Celt ; but, before we
leave the shadow of the abbey walls, some memorabilia of this
parish and abbey claim a passing reference. These reliques con-
sisted formerly of the Crois- Gunge, or great processional cross of
Cong ; the Fiachal Phadrig, or shrine of St. Patrick's tooth ;
the Clogh-dubh, or black bell of St. Patrick ; and the Foil-a-ree,
or King's blood. This last consisted of a bit of discoloured
linen, said to have been dipped in the blood of Charles I. at
the time of his decapitation at Whitehall, and which was be-
lieved to possess the royal or Stewart faculty of curing the
king's evil. Hundreds came to be "touched" by Abbot Pren-
dergast ; and in all probability this was the latest instance in
which this rite was exercised in the British Isles. When last
THE SHRINE OF ST. PATRICK S TOOTH. 189
heard of, this scrofula-curing rag was in the possession of a
family near Ballindine.
The Fiachal Phadrig is a handsomely decorated shrine of
wood, in the form of a horse shoe, satchel, or reticule, 11 J inches
high by 9 wide, and somewhat wedge-shaped ; and it is said, tra-
ditionally, to have been constructed to hold one of the teeth of
our Patron Saint. It is, however, believed that there are other
reliques of a similar kind still in the country. It is 1J inch thick
at bottom, and fines off to a thin metal plate at the narrow top,
in continuation of the highly decorated rim which originally
surrounded it, but which, like other portions of the brass,
silver, and gilt materials, has been much injured, and bears
the marks of "tinkers' hands" in the mode of soldering. On
the chief or front side is a crucifixion in metal work, with two
figures on each side; and below it an arcade of trefoil arches.
Beneath, there is a row of four (there were five originally)
raised gilt figures, holding books, shrines, and croziers ; and
from an inscription underneath we learn that they represent-
ed Saints "Benon, Brigida, Patric, Columqille, Brendan," and
between which and the silver plate to which they are attached
is inserted, either as a relique or for artistic purposes, a por-
tion of fine linen.
On the front is an imperfect inscription, the upper line of
which is in embossed — the lower is in the raised character of
the twelfth or fourteenth century : — " Thomas de Bramichem :
Diis : de Athen — me fecit ornari pisca parte." This Thomas
190 THE SHRINK OF ST. PATRICK^ TOOTH.
de Bermingham was probably the Lord of Athenry in the thir-
teenth or fourteenth century ; but certainly the original shrine
is older than his time.
On the back or reverse side is a raised, but unfigured cross,
on each side of which are a series of figures — two raised, and
two engraved on the silver plate. Two of these are of eccle-
siastics, holding croziers ; and one is that of a female holding
a harp, which is well worthy of inspection, as it is probably one
of the oldest representations of that instrument which we now
possess. The shrine is also highly decorated with crystals,
stones, and amber, placed in collated studs, like those in the
shrine of St. Monchan of Leigh. Upon it there are also several
pieces of gold and silver filagree work, similar to those around
the central crystal of the Cross of Cong It is to be hoped
that accurate illustrations of this relique, so interesting for its
artistic details, will ere long be published. Probably this shrine
remained in the hands of the Berminghams, who had large
possessions all round Cong. Its modern history is this : — About
fifty years ago a man named Keilly, said to be a native of Sligo,
made a living by going about this part of the country with it
" performing cures upon man and beast." Ladies and ewes are
said to have held it in especial repute, and far and near the
population and the flocks u were the better of the blessed tooth."
One day the old Abbot met the custodian of the shrine, and
asked him to show him the Fiachah " Whose is this?" said the
priest, when he had it in his possession. " It belonged," said
st. Patrick's tooth. 191
Reilly, "to the canons of Cong." "Then," said Father Pren-
dergast, " I am the last of the Augustinian canons of that
monastery, and I'll keep it ;" and so, to the amazement of the
owner, he rode off with it. He afterwards lent it to Mrs. Blake,
who preserved it at Blake Hill, near Cong, whence it was
removed to Menlough, upon the occasion of the serious illness
of one of the family, who afterwards presented it to Dr. Stokes,
by whom it was deposited in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy, where it remained until the present year. Accord-
ing to a tradition in the parish, this shrine came from the
county of Sligo, where there are still some recollections of
St. Patrick's tooth.
The origin of this shrine is as follows : — In later life St. Pa-
trick began to lose his teeth ; and some of these were pre-
served by his friends and disciples, and gave names to churches
commemorative of the circumstance, as in that of Kilfeacle,
or "the church of the tooth," near the town of Tipperary, &c.
It is stated that, in the Irish Apostle's visitation of northern
Connaught, he proceeded along the coasts of Sligo and Mayo,
and, crossing the river Moy at Bartragh, he raised a cross
there, and afterwards erected the church of Cassel-Irra, in
Hy-Fiachrach — probably in the present parish of Killaspug-
brone. And while there sojourning, bishops Bronius and Mac-
rinee came to him, " and he wrote out the alphabet for them ;
and he gave a tooth from his mouth to Bishop Bronius, because
he was dear to Patrick. There also the holy man laid the foun-
1^)2 THE CROSS OF CONG.
dation of the church of Cassel-Irra, in the court of which is the
stone upon which fell the tooth."*
The large processional cross, now preserved in the Museum
of the Royal Irish Academy, and known as "The Cross of
Cong," is undoubtedly one of the finest specimens of metal work,
enamel, niello, and jewellery of its age in the western world.
It stands 30 inches high, and the breadth of the arms is 19.
The illustration on the next page affords so faithful a repre-
sentation of it, that it is unnecessary, especially in a work of
this nature, to enter into a minute description of its artistic
details. It consists of an oaken cross, covered with plates of
bronze and silver, washed in many places with a thick layer of
gold, and having interspersed golden filagree work of most mi-
nute character around its front centre. All the front and back
plates are elaborately carved with that intertwined pattern, or
strap work, with grotesque animals, which is specially characte-
ristic of Irish ornamentation on stone, metal, vellum, and vitre-
ous composition, and which is seen on so many of our great mo-
numental crosses, and is well represented in the Moytura Cross,
figured at page 178. The outer corners of each compartment
were originally studded with precious stones, glass, or figured
* See the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, Trias- Thaumatiirga, p. 142,
&c. ; see also the Annotations of Tirechan, in the Book of Armagh ; and
O' Donovan's Notes to the Annals of the Four Masters, under a. d. 511, in
which year " Saint Bronn, bishop of Cuil-Irra, in Connaught, died." See
also the "Genealogies and Tribes, &c, of Hy-Fiachrach, v published by the
Irish Archaeological Society.
THE CROSS OF CONG.
193
enamel paste, in white and dark blue colours. Supported
upon a raised boss, decorated with niello in the centre, there is
a large polished crystal, under which was placed originally the
relique sent from Rome to
in 1123, and thus stated
len under that year: — "A
into Ireland, and was en-
Turlough O'Conor." And,
Clonmacnoise,
year 1136, we
Roderick ^
and Nuada O'Concennan
lough O'Conor ; although
the Cohorbs of St. Jarlath,
the Bachall JBuee, or "the
name, as Dr. Petrie, in his
subject,* has shown, this
called from its golden ap-
sides there are a series of
tions, both in the Irish
punched into the silver
-v
King Turlough O'Conor,
in The Annals of Innisfal-
bit of the true cross came
shrined at Roscommon by
again, in the Book of
under the
read, that
O'Conor
were arrested by Tur-
under the protection of
and of O'Duffy and of
yellow staff," by which
learned article upon the
shrine w r as popularly
pearance. Around its
Latin and Irish inscrip-
character ; the letters are
plate, apparently by dyes
or types, and so deeply that the metal plates beneath are in-
dented with almost equal sharpness ; and this enables us to
* See Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. iv., p. 572 ; — also
Dr. O'Donovan's dissertation on this inscription in the Journal of the Kil-
kenny Archasological Society, vol. i., new series, p. 37; see also his Irish
Grammar.
) ( .)4 DESCRIPTIONS ON THE CROSS OF CONG.
read uninterruptedly even where the external plate has been
injured. The foot of the cross springs from a highly decorated
dog's head, which rises out of a globe, the ornamentation of
which, in detail, is a marvel of the workmanship of its own or
any other period. Beneath that ball is a decorated socket, into
which was inserted the staff or pole with which the cross was
carried. The inscription affords, unerringly, the history of this
magnificent relique, the time and purpose for which it was
made, and recounts the names of those in any way concerned
in its formation. The following is a fac simile engraving, taken
from a rubbing, of the Latin inscription, which is in duplicate
on both sides of the lower portion of the edges : —
p <tou rco nt> rcor o r bi r>
Or, in modern characters — Hac cruce cvilv tegitur qua pasus
\_passus] conditor orbis. " In this cross is preserved [or co-
vered] the cross on which the Founder of the world suffered."
Some of the Irish inscriptions are slightly defective, but
sufficient remains to furnish us with the following informa-
tion : — " A prayer for Mureduch U Dubthaig, the Senior of
Erin"— the notice of whose death at Cong, in 1150, is given at
page 176.
" A prayer for Therrdel U Chofio [Turlough O'Conor] — for
the King of Erin ; for whom this grcssa [or shrine] was made."
Another portion of this inscription refers to the ecclesiastic
INSCRIPTIONS ON THE CROSS OF CONG. 195
whose death is recorded at page 177: — " A prayer for Dom-
null Mac Flannacan U Dubdaig [O'Duffy], bishop of Con-
nacht and Coharb, of [Saints] Chomman and Chiaran, under
whose superintendence the shrine was made" — which also lends
support to the assertion already made that the work was com-
pleted at Ross-Common, where O'DufTy was Abbot of the ce-
brated monastery of St. Comman, as well as that of St. Keerin
at Clonmacnois.
"The fourth, and last compartment," says Dr. Petrie, "of
these inscriptions, is not the least valuable, though it only pre-
serves the name of a person of inferior station — that of the arti-
ficer who made the shrine, as it proyes incontestibly what
without it might, and probably would have been deemed doubt-
ful ; namely, that the shrine was of native workmanship."
" A prayer for Maelisu Mac Bratdan O'Echan, who made
this shrine." This O'h-Echain was comharba of St. Finnen, of
Cloncraff, in the county of Roscommon.
Probably the cross was brought to Cong Abbey by the
O'Duffys ; but as to what became of it for five centuries we
have no historic account. There is a tradition in the parish
that it was kept in an iron box, with other reliques, about a
hundred years ago. The author remembers it during his boyish
days, in the possession of Abbot Prendergast, who kept it with
the other reliques already mentioned, in a three-cornered cup-
board in his little sitting room at Abbotstown. — See page 174.
It used, however, be placed upon the altar of Cong chapel at
the festivals of Christinas and Easter. After Prendergast's
2
liM) THE RELIQUES OF GONG.
death it was removed to Cong, at which time the central crys-
tal had been removed, and was usually carried by a lady in her
pocket. If still in existence, it is not known where the relique
for which this cross was made is at present. It must have been
a very small fragment, such as can at present be obtained in the
Vatican.* The cross was purchased by the late Professor
M'Cullagh, and presented, in 1839, to the Royal Irish Aca-
demy, where it served to form the nucleus of that great national
collection of secular and ecclesiastical antiquities, that for its
age and the scanty means at the disposal of those who have
created it, is undoubtedly the finest national collection in
Europe.-}-
The fourth and last relique connected with this locality was
the Black Bell of St. Patrick, which the author procured many
years ago for the Academy, and of which the accompanying
is an illustration. It had long been in the possession of the
Gerarty family, near Ballinrobe, who brought it every year to
the " pattern" held on the top of the Eeek or Croagh Patrick,
* Father Prendergast, although a good scholar and worthy man, was, like
most of his brethren at the time, utterly ignorant, and totally careless about,
the historic memorials of the country. Of the valuable collection of Irish
MSS. transmitted to him with the cross and other i/a-valuables, it is said that
one day, when he left home, a tailor, who was working in his house, laid
hands on the vellum books, and cut several into strips for " measures." Need
we wonder at much of this Vandalism still existing, when there is no chair of
ecclesiology or archeology at Mavnooth, and the chief Protestant schools
of Ireland do not teach Irish History ?
f See Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. i., p. 326.
THE BLACK BELL OF ST. PATRICK.
197
li I mam i
on " Garland Sunday," and where, in the little oratory there,
the pious pilgrim was allowed to kiss it for a penny ; and, if
he had been affected by " rheumatism pains," he might put it
three times round his body for two pence. But times got bad,
the pattern thinned, and the Mdor or keeper of the Clog-duhh
sold it, to help to pay his passage to America. Certainly, if
wear and tear is a sign of age, this
antique should claim our highest
veneration. It is 11 inches high,
and 6 wide, and is formed, like
most ancient of our- Irish bells, of
iron intermixed with other metals.
It formerly belonged to the parish
of Killower, near Headford, where,
in one of the ancient descriptions
of the hereditary property of the
O'Flahertys and their dependants,
it is said that "Mac Beolan, of
Killower, is the keeper of the black
bell of St. Patrick." It was be-
lieved in the locality that this bell w T as a present from an angel
to the saint, and was originally of pure silver, but that it was
rendered black and corroded, as at present seen, u by its con-
tact with the demons on Croaghpatrick, wdien the Apostle of
Ireland was expelling them thence." See OTlaherty's "West
Connaught," page 370.
198
WAYSIDE MONUMENTS.
Cong and its environs still claim our attention. The great
monumental cairns and stone circles of upwards of two thousand
years ago that abound in this neighbourhood seem to have im-
pressed the people — as they appear to have done in the
Aran Isles — with a special desire to honour the memory of the
dead ; and so on all sides we meet with wayside monuments,
crosses, pillar-stones, and tumuli erected by those who com-
posed the passing funerals, as they rested at any of these spots
on their way to the hallowed precincts of St. Mary's Abbey.
And afterwards each relative of the deceased, or the passing
friend, or the ' : good Christian" put up a stone, or cast a pebble
upon one of the
little heaps, se-
veral of which
can even still be
identified as be-
longing to par-
ticular families.
Upon the eastern
road there is the
* Cresseens, a col-
lection of small
wooden crosses
placed on a wall
under an ash tree. And on the west, as we pass into the
county Galway^ over Togher-na-heitJie, by Poll-Tuathfill, and
<..•«- ***£
A.UGHALARD CASTLE.
199
Poll-Lieben, and by Poll-achuaiieal, and proceeding westwards
towards Cregaree, or " Royal Rock," the residence of the Vener-
able Michael Waldron, the worthy Roman Catholic Dean of this
diocese, we pass a great collection of these monuments, some
of the principal of which, from Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall's very
beautiful work on Ireland, are figured on the opposite page.
Along this road we pass several pools, where the waters
of Lough Mask appear in their transit to Cong and Lough
Corrib ; and among the limestone rocks that stretch across the
isthmus stands the tall tower of Aughalard Castle, with its ad-
joining group of ruins as shown in the accompanying illustra-
tion. It is exceedingly well built, and presents several details
of considerable beauty and great architectural interest, espe-
200 THE CAVES OF CONG.
cially in the loop-holes at the angles, and in the top mouldings
of its light, graceful windows.
Among the limestone rocks to the north-west of this castle
may be seen two of the caves, for which Cong is celebrated ;
both are artificial, and one of them can at present be entered.
There are three descriptions of caves in this locality — natural,
artificial, and mixed. The first is magnificently represented by
the oreat chasm in the limestone rock, about a mile to the west
of Cong, and to the south-west of Aughalard; and which, from
the number of pigeons and woodquests that used in former
times to flock into it, is popularly known as the Pigeon hole,
and in Irish, Poll nag-columb, a locality rendered memorable by
Lady Morgan ; and the legends of which have been so graphi-
cally described by Samuel Lover, and where in boyhood we
tried to purloin from old Babby, the priestess of the place, "the
blessed trout," especially the one with the mark of the gridiron
on his side
Call at Mrs. Burke's, tourist, and tell her you want to see
the Pigeon hole ; leave your car at the stile of one of the green
fields that mottle the great limestone crop all round, and walk
down a few hundred yards to the east. Hark ! — listen ! — the
ground is hollow ; there are sounds issuing from beneath your
feet. Draw nearer ; stand opposite the little clump of dwarf
oak, hazel, and holly, through which these subterranean noises
rise to light and air. Look down the flight of steps up which
that graceful girl is rising, with a pitcher of water on her head;
THE PIGEON HOLE.
201
descend by a flight of steps into the bowels of the earth, be-
tween huge masses of lichen-covered rock, draped with tendrils
of ivy, 50 or 60 feet long, depending from the top, and every
chink and crevice, of which is festooned with ferns and mosses
of the greenest hue. Look up ; the light of day is obscured by
the overhanging branches, and at your feet gushes a rapid trans-
lucent river, at which women are beetling clothes, or filling
their water vessels. Fill your eyes with the scene — try and
penetrate the chilling gloom that broods over the great chasm
that spans the mighty rocks that have fallen on your right.
Lo ! presently on the top of one of these immense blocks stands
for a moment a weird female figure, bearing a lighted flambeau,
the genius loci — the Meg Merrilies of the scene. Away she
flits— darkness again, save the reflection of the light on the
stalactitic roof above ; then, emerging from an unobserved pas-
sage, she stands on another and more distant crag, with her
long white locks, and pale aged face, personifying the banshee
of the ancient Firbolgs. She hurls stones into the deep pools
beneath, and utters a loud wail, that reverberates through the
cavern, till the repeated echoes fade in the distance, and we
watch the lurid light of the expiring glossogs she has thrown
on the waters, as they float on through these subterranean
caverns to the lake, or to rise in the great mill pond of Cong.
"That's the Pigeonhole, yer Honour."
In the grounds of Strandhill there are two caves somewhat
similar, "The Ladies Buttery" and the " Horse Discovery;"
202 THE DROI-TING-HOLE.
the latter so called because it was discovered by a horse and
plough having fallen into it, owing to a portion of the roof
having suddenly given way, many years ago. They both ad-
join the road leading from the steamer to the village — see page
159 — and through botli the waters of Lough Mask pass into
Louo-h Corrib. Still more to the north-east there is " Webb's
Hole," and in the townland of Cooslughoga, adjoining the roads
leading to Cross and The Neale, a miniature pigeon hole, called
Poll-na-dorragh, or "the dropping-hole, with steps leading
down to it ; and several other natural caverns, through which
the waters £>f the upper lake percolate to that of a lower level.
All these the guides will show those interested in such mat-
ters ; and also relate the atrocities of Captain Webb, and the
marauding exploits of " Macnamara the robber," and the
prowess of his bay mare ; and also point out the hiding place
of " Kelly the outlaw ;" — most of the legends concerning all
which have been graphically related by that most entertaining
of all Irish tour writers, Caesar Otway.
The artificial caves abound all over the plain of Moytura,
from Knockma to Benlevi. Probably they were all originally
within, or surrounded by, forts or cahers, to which they served
as places of protection and security for women and children,
and the wounded or defenceless ; or to stow away valuables in
case of attack. They may also have been used as sleeping
apartments, and perhaps as granaries and storehouses, although
at the time they were built the chief food of the Irish was ani-
Artificial caves. 203
mal. The following general description will apply to most of
them, and the details and illustrative plans and sketches of a
few particular ones will enable the reader to understand the
manner of their construction, and the tourist to identify those
he may desire to inspect by candle light : —
By fancying a trench sunk in the ground, 10 or 12 feet
deep, and from 12 to 14 wide, and about 30 or 40 feet long,
either in a straight line, or turning at an angle about midway,
probably to avoid an obstruction — the sides lined with walls
2 feet thick, of moderate sized stones, put firmly together
without cement, and not in courses ; and the roof formed of
enormous flags, many of them 8 and 9 feet long, 4 or 5 wide, or
upwards, of a foot thick, laid on top — we have a good general
idea of a Mayo Firbolg, or Tuatha de Danann cave, of probably
two thousand years old. Towards what must be considered
the entrance end the cave narrows, and the floor rises ; but the
general level of the roof is preserved, and the upper side of
the flags of the roofing is now about 2 feet under the sod. At
the distant end the cave widens often into a large oval chamber,
and there is in some caves a small aperture, possibly for air and
light, or communicating with those above, or to let out smoke.
They were all entered by square apertures in the roof, as when-
ever the cave is perfect the ends are built up. This trap door
may have been covered in case of emergency with a flaw.
The Moytura caves present one remarkable peculiaritv :
they are nearly all divided into two chambers by a contrivance
204 KILDUN CAVE.
evidently intended, not merely for security, but concealment, as
follows: — A few years ago the author discovered a cave at
Kildun, "the dark wood," adjoining the road leading from Cross
to The Neale, sunk in the centre of the remains of a large caher
to the north-east of the "Plain of the Hurlers," and of which
the two following diagrams, drawn to a scale of 16 feet to the
inch, present the elevation and ground plan. Its direction is
from south-west to north-east ; but, from the great variety in the
line of these souterrains, it is manifest their constructors paid no
regard to the points of the compass. Descending through an
aperture at the low, narrow, southern end, which is now only
3 feet high, we pass into a chamber 22 feet long, but widening
and deepening towards the northern extremity. It is 6 feet
wide, and 4 feet 9 inches high ; and in the lower part of the
end wall there is a horizontal passage, about 3 feet square and
6 long, at the end of which a perpendicular shaft or chimney,
18 inches by 30, rises ; getting through which, we land on a
platform of masonry, 3 feet 4 inches high ; beyond which is a
another larger chamber, 24 feet long, and averaging 6 feet
wide, and 7 high — roofed over, like the southern portion, with
immense flags that span the top. In the left corner is a small
square recess, like a cupboard ; and overhead a small aperture,
through which light and air were admitted. This end of the
cave approaches the outer circle of the fort, with the wall of
which it may have communicated.
The upper diagram shows the section, and the lower the
LAVE PLANS.
205
ground plan of this great cave, which is altogether 54 feet in
length. A marks the first hall with its descending entrance ;
B, the low, narrow, connecting passage ; C, the perpendicular
shaft ; D, the ledge at the southern end of E, the second, or
great hall, at the extremity of which is the recess and venti-
lating aperture.
While, however, in modern architecture the general de-
sign of a dwelling, church, or fortress, is the same, the details
often differ widely ; so it was in cave building, for we find a
great uniformity of purpose in all. In the townland of " Cave,"
at the south-west foot of Knockma, one of these straight subter-
ranean habitations may be seen, and from thence to the eastern
rise of Benlevi numbers of the same class of underground struc-
tures are met with ; and as w T e approach the battle-field they
abound in every townland ; and, if we refer to the Ordnance
Maps, we see the great number of localities in which the word
cave is marked. The cave at Attyricard, mentioned at page
155, is of this class, as is also that in the great enclosure of
206
ANGULAR CAVES.
Caher-Paetar, or "pewter fort," at Bally magibby on, although
that extensive passage took a somewhat curved direction ; and
there can be no doubt that the remains of caves are still to
be found on the sites of all the great cahers in this locality.
That at Lackaflnna was only closed within the last twenty
years.
Another form is the Angular or Crooked Cave, of which
that at Lisheenard, in Ashford,
described at page 184, is an ex- j
ample ; but one of the most curious of this
class is that at Cooslughoga or Cusloughe, '* the
rat's foot," which is placed within the circle
of an ancient fort, near Calliaghdoo, about mid-
way between the roads leading to Cross and
Ballinrobe. Scrambling down through the nar-
row dilapidated north-western entrance we get
into a chamber, marked A on the following
ground plan, 21 feet long, 7 high, and 6 feet 3
inches wide, and running nearly east and west.
The roofing flags are of immense size, and
supported on corbels that jut inwards for about
9 inches. At the extremity of this hall the walls narrow, and a
small door appears, as shown in the left-hand cut at top of the
illustration given on the opposite page. Creeping through
this very small doorway, we get into the second or larger
apartment, marked B, which is 24 feet long, and differs from
COOSLUGHOGA CAVE.
207
that of most other caves in having the western side wall com-
posed of large upright flagstones, not unlike those that sup-
port the roof of the passage into New Grange ; and, like those
of that remarkable structure, some of these are indented with
artificial depressions along their sides and edges, as shown
in the lower compartment of the following illustration. We
have not, however, as yet found on any of the Moytura caves
those peculiar carvings, spires, lozenges, and volutes, such as
208 CAHERDUFF.
characterize the caves of Meath. Either such were not known
at the period of the construction of the Mayo caves ; or, what
is more likely, they were only used in sepulchral caverns,
and probably expressed ideas connected with the life of
the deceased, or the artist's ideas of futurity.
This second chamber turns somewhat to the north, and is
curved round its extreme angde, in the southern side of which
we meet the high doorway shown by the second top figure
in the foregoing illustration. From that, a narrow passage
leads through a very small aperture at its top, over a barrier
similar to that in the cave of Kildun, into a third, or northern,
chamber, 22 feet long, marked G upon the diagram.*
Not far to the north-east of this place, and upon the boun-
dary of the Plain of the Hurlers, to be described presently,
is CaherdufT, " the black fort," of which there are still some
remains of the outer wall at the mearins: of the townland, to
which it gives name. Within this enclosure there is a very
extensive curved cave, in good preservation, and remarkable
for having still perfect the oblong doorway in the roof, by
which access was gained to the interior. Having passed for
20 feet in a south-eastern direction, a long narrow passage
* All the caves in this locality were carefully measured, and ground
plans and sections of them made for the author, by Mr. James M'Donagh,
an intelligent surveyor of the neighbourhood; but the two foregoing dia-
grams are considered sufficient for explanation. The visitor should sup-
ply himself with candles before commencing the investigation of these
caves, as the interiors of most of them are in utter darkness.
THE LEPROCHAUN'S MILL. 209
leads at an acute angle into a chamber 24 feet long, and
widening towards its northern extremity.
These details of a few out of the many caves in this lo-
cality, and in the neighbouring townland of Creevagh, that
may be visited by the antiquarian tourist, will serve to give a
general idea of their construction. Muillean-a- Leprochaun, or
"the fairies' mill," not far from hence— where in former times
the people left their casheens of corn at nightfall, and found
them full of meal in the morning — is worthy of inspection as
a natural cave. Although the grinding stones are still heard,
no meal has been ground there since an old woman complained
that she had been defrauded by the little miller.
"Kelly's Cave," at Learg-a-Neal, "the path to the Neale,"
to the left of the road leading from Cong to Nymphsfield,
affords a good example of the mixed variety already referred
to, in which the natural and artificial were combined ; for,
while it is evidently a huge cleft formed by nature in the
rock, portions of the wall in front and on the sides are un-
doubtedly artificial. But the best instance of this description
of cave will be found in the great cavern to the west of
the hill of Carn, near Lough Mask, where the entrance and
a long passage, evidently artificial, and roofed over with im-
mense flags, leads into a very large natural cave, from the
roof of which depend numerous stalactites. As most of the
ostensible overground monuments around Cong are identified
with the great battle of Moytura, their description is reserved
for the next chapter.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BATTLE AND BATTLE-FIELD OE MOYTURA.
THE PRIMITIVE IRISHMAN. FOMORIANS. PARTHOLAN. NEMETH. THE
FIRBOLGS. TTJATHA DE DANANN. THE PLAIN OF MOYTURA. XNOCKMA.
CEASAIR. KINGS EOCHY AND NUADH. THE BATTLE-FIELD. THE
WARRIORS, DRUIDS, AND PHYSICIANS. EXISTING MONUMENTS; CAIRNS,
CAVES, CAHERS, STONE CIRCLES, AND PILLARS. THE FOUR DAYS'
FIGHT. THE MEANE TJISGE. SEPULCHRAL URN. STANDING STONES
AT INISHOWEN. THE DAGDA AND THE FATHACH. NYMPHSFIELD
MONUMENTS. CAHER MAC TURC. BELOR OF THE MAGIC EYE. THE
NEALE MONUMENTS. THE HILL OF CARN. CAHER ROBERT. HIS-
TORY OF THE MOYTURA MANUSCRIPT.
BEFORE entering upon the topography of the locality, or de-
scribing the battle-field of Moytura, a short epitome of the
early history and colonization of Ireland may not be out of
place. The computed period of man's residence on our globe
has undergone much modification of late years ; but, with re-
spect to Irish chronology, at least we believe it will be found
to approach the truth as near as that of most other countries ;
and the more we investigate it, and endeavour to synchronize it
with that of other lands, the less reason we shall have to find
fault with the accounts of our native annalists.
The author has elsewhere stated his belief that man first set
foot on Erin in a very rude state, as a nomad hunter and fisher,
THE PRIMITIVE IRISHMAN. 211
depending for his food on the chase, or feeding on the unculti-
vated fruits of the earth, or the produce of the waters ; clad
in skins, and having no knowledge of metal, but forming his
simple weapons, tools, and ornaments out of flint, stone, and
shell, &c* These early or aboriginal people were termed, in
later times, Fomorians. A colony under three leaders — Bith,
Ladra, and Fintan — and several females (of whom Ceasair, or
Cesarea, was the chief), who were supposed to have come
across the Spanish Main, arrived on the south coast, and have
left their names in different localities in ancient Erin, and
among the rest in Knockma, the great hill of the plain, which
forms so conspicuous an object in the district ; and in the great
monumental cairn surmounting which, called Carn-Keasrach,
it is said, in The " Ogygia," that Cesarea was interred.
Another large colony, believed to have been of immediate
Oriental origin, under a leader named Parthalon, followed, and,
also landing on the south coast, defeated the native Fomorians,
but were themselves cut off by a plague, or Thaum, and were
interred at Tallaght (Tamh-Leacht, or the "plague stone"), near
Dublin, where their urns have been frequently exhumed ; but
Parthalon himself, it is thought, was buried in the cromleach at
Ben Edair, now Howth.f The leaders of that colony also left
* See the Author's Catalogue of the Antiquities in the Museum of the
Royal Irish Academy, part i.
f See Mr. Ferguson's poem on Howth See also the Author's Table
of Pestilences in the "Irish Census Report for 1851," vol. v., page 45.
P 2
212 THE EARLY IRISH COLONISTS.
their names to various places in Erin ; and by these people it
is said that several of the plains were cleared of wood, and cul-
tivated. Our histories state, that in these early times many
lakes were formed, and several rivers broke out — relations that
some years ago would have been regarded as fabulous by many,
and miraculous by some ; but now that cosmical phenomena are
better understood, such accounts will rather afford subjects for
calm scientific investigation than for ridicule. After the days
of Parthalon another immigration into Erin occurred, under
the leadership of Nemedh (from whom the original name of
this very plain, to the east of Cong, was derived), with his
sons Starn ; Hiarbanel the prophet from whom the Dananns
descended ; Fergus Bedside, the father of Britannus, who gave
his name to " the great island" adjoining ; and Ainnin, from
wdiom Logh Ainnin, now Lough Ennell, in Westmeath, is
called. They also were clearers of woods, and promoters of
civilization ; and their chief settlement was in Dalaradia, in the
northern portion of the island, where they contended for the
mastery with the old Fomorians, and destroyed their great
tower of Conang, at Tor-innis, now Tory Island. As in many
modern instances, the plague combined with the sword to thin
their army ; and, after an occupation of a portion of the island,
Nemedh himself, and three thousand of his followers, died of a
Thaum at Ard-Neimedh, now Barrymore Island, on the Cork
coast; and then, More the son of Dala, rallying the Fomorians,
THE FOMORIANS AND FIRBOLGS. 213
attacked the remaining Nemedhs, and caused them to emigrate
to Britain.
We now approach more probable, if not more certain his-
tory. A Belgic colony, called Firbolgs, under five chieftains" —
Slainghe, Kadruic, Seangan, Genan, and Gan, passing over
from Britain, arrived in great numbers, conquered the native
Irish of the day, established a kingly form of government, and
divided the country into a pentarchy. They also left their
names in several places, and erected those stupendous bar-
baric monuments which may be seen in the Aran Isles to this
day.
During all this long period the Fomorians, although con-
quered, were neither subdued nor extirpated ; they frequently
espoused different sides with the several invaders (just as the
native Irish did after 1172), and by intermarriage became
allied to them. Eventually their political power was crushed,
and their chiefs retired to Tory Island, on the Donegal coast,
where they earned the name of " pirates." They come on the
scene at a later period.
The fifth colony, sprung, it is said, from the race of Nemedh,
who had emigrated northward, possibly driving the Lapps of
Middle Europe before them, prior even to the date of " the
March of Odin," and perhaps coeval with the time of the oyster-
eaters of Jutland, returned to Ireland as Tuatha de Danann,
under the leadership of their king, Nuad, and, advancing
into the interior as far as the south margin of Leitrim, de-
214 THE LAND OF THE WEST.
manded a portion of the island from the Belgce, with whom
they had, it is said, a common language. Prior to that date,
whatever it may have been, the entries in our annals, trans-
mitted by the Bards, and probably recited at the feasts of chief-
tains, or at national assemblies — as very likely the poems of
Homer were sung, before being committed to writing — are
meagre, and consist chiefly of records of pestilences and
cosmical phenomena, which latter, however, bear the test of
scientific investigation.
Henceforward, Irish history becomes more detailed, if not
more certain. Thus we read of colony after colony coming
down from the cold regions of the north, passing on from
the warm sunny plains of the south, and crowding in even
from the distant east ; seeking, as the destiny and the impulse
of man ever is the land of the setting sun — the most distant
point of habitable earth to which he can reach, or whereon he
can by any possibility exist ; but above all because, from its
geographical position, its climate, and its soil, Green Erin
afforded these pastoral people then, as it does now, a greater
amount of food for herbivorous animals than any equal ex-
tent of land in North-western Europe.
The Firbolgs were a small, swarthy, dark race, as w T ere pro-
bably their Fomorian precursors. The Teutons or Scandi-
navian Dananns, on the other hand, were a large, fair, light
or sandy-haired people, of superior knowledge and intelligence,
which obtained for them the attributes of magical skill and
THE PLAIN OF NEMEDH. 215
necromancy ; they were also musical and poetic. Both races
were Druidic in religion ; and, so far as can be gleaned from
remote history, both possessed a knowledge of metal, and were
armed accordingly.
The Belgas having refused to divide the country with the
invaders, the Dananns proceeded westward, and occupied the
great plain of Nemedh, or Magh-Ith, which stretches for about
12 miles from the hill of Knockma, in the county of Galway,
through the fertile barony of Kilmain, in Mayo, to Slieve
Belgadain, now called Benlevi, a short distance from the vil-
lage of Cong, in the barony of Boss, and county of Galway,
and forms the eastern barrier to the western highlands. Both
eminences, as already stated, may be discovered at a great
distance all round. Lough Comb forms the southern, and the
shores of Lough Mask the immediate western, margin of this
plain, which, extending for four or five miles in breadth, is
bounded on the north-west by the Kiver Kobe. How long the
Scandinavians occupied that situation, or whether they or the
Belgic people formed those numerous forts, raths, cairns, and
cahers, that cluster on its western extremity in groups resem-
bling cities, or, whether such were constructed prior to the
battle, must remain matters of speculation. Certain it is, that
in remote ages an immense population must have occupied
that plain ; for, notwithstanding the vast lapse of time, the
progress of cultivation, and the ruthless hand of the despoiler,
almost every field bears evidence of its existence.
216 KNOCKMA.
Eochy, son of Ere, King of Erin, advanced to the hill
of Knockma with all his forces from Tara, in Meath, then
the seat of government, to attack the Tuatha de Dananns,
whose leader, Nuad, took up his position on Benlevi, with
his warriors, sages, Druids, bards, poets, and physicians, &c,
whose names have been all recounted, and their prowess
sung in story, so that throughout the whole thread of Irish
history they remain recorded. By this means the wily Da-
nanns had the fastnesses of Joyce Country and Connamara
to fall back on in case of defeat, as it is said they destroyed
their fleet on landing.
Knock-Magha, or Knockma, the great "hill of the plain,"
so conspicuous in the landscape, is about five miles to the
west of Tuam, in the barony of Clare and county of Galway ;
its northern slope is occupied by the woods and cultivated
grounds of Castlehacket, the seat of Denis Kirwan, Esq. ; and
on its summit stands the great cairn within which tradition and
ancient history say Ceasair, one of the earliest colonists of Ire-
land, was interred.* (See page 211). Perhaps we do not err in
assigning to this ancient burial place a date anterior to that of
* During the last fifty years an eccentric person residing in the loca-
lity made a castellated stone structure to the west of this great cairn ;
but it in nowise either interferes with or invalidates the old sepulchral mo-
nument referred to in the text; and it is not clear that, despite its Brum-
magem architecture, there is not beneath it a second tumulus, consecrated
to the remains of some early Irish notability.
KNOCKMA. 217
any other identified historical locality in Ireland ; and hence tra-
dition, as well as popular superstition, has thrown over it the
investiture of fairy legend beyond all other places in the coun-
try ; for here Finvarra, the Oberon of Irish sylvan mythology,
holds his court. From this point may be obtained one of the
grandest panoramic views in Ireland ; — the great plain stretch-
ing beneath and round Knockroe ; the beautiful abbey of
Knockmoy ; the towers and city of the Ford of the Kings ;
the Tuam of St. Jarlath ; the Bound Tower of St. Bennan ; the
ruined keeps of the De Burgos; the ships riding in the Bay
of Galway ; the Slievebloom and Clare mountains ; the blue
island-studded waters of Lough Corrib ; and, in the far west-
ern back ground, the Connamara Alps, with their clear-cut
edges, and their sides momentarily varying in tints from the
marvellous atmospheric effects of that region stretching round
by the Partry range to the lofty peak of Croaghpatrick ; and
in the extreme north-western distance the bulky form of Nefln,
and even some of the Achill mountains skirting Clew Bay.
King Eochy, with his Firbolg host, descended into the plain
of Moytura, and, passing westwards, was met by the heralds and
ambassadors of Nuad, on that portion of it subsequently called
Conmaicne Cuile Toladh, extending from the present village of
Cross to the neck of land that divides Loughs Mask and Corrib.
They then, as was not uncommon with nations in kindred states
of civilization, agreed upon a trial of skill and manly prowess ;
and twenty-seven youths from each army engaged in a game of
218 THE PLAIN OF THE HURLERS.
hurling, in a valley denominated in the tale "The Plain of the
Hurlers." Now, presuming that we are correct in our interpre-
tation of the MS. account of the engagement and the topo-
graphy, this extends in an eastern direction for three quarters
of a mile from the bridge of Garracloon to the rise of Cath-
na-Bunnin, south-east of Nymphsfield, and is bordered on the
north by CaherdufF, and on the south by the rise of Knock,
on both of which we find several monuments of the battle that
subsequently ensued. In fact, it is the only hurling ground in
the district ; it was used as such within the memory of the
present generation ; and it is said the fairies still have their
games of " common" there on bright moonlight nights. The
northern boundary of this smooth valley is the rocky space,
covered with dwarf hazel, which gives the name of Ceaslean-
na-Cuillagh, "The castle in the wood," to the old haunted ruin
shown in the subjoined illustration ; and to the west of which is
the cave of Caherdubh, described at page 208. This castle —
so often seen, it is said, " afire" on summer nights, when the
fairies, after their game of hurling, hold their banquets there —
is, however, a mortared structure of great strength, and pro-
bably about five centuries old.
This warlike pastime ended in the defeat and death of the
thrice nine youths of the Dananns, over whom was erected the
great earn or stone monument figured on the next page, and
which would appear to be that called in the MS. Carn-an-
chhdthe, or the "monument of the game;" and the valley of
THE CARN OF GLEN-MO-AILLEM.
219
the hurlers, where they were interred, was then denominated
Glen-mo- Aillem. There it stands to this day, about 50 feet
high, and 400 in circumference — an historic memorial as valid
as that which commemorates the spot on the shore of Attica,
where the Athenians fell beneath the long spears of the Per-
sians on the field of Marathon.
Next day, supposed to be the 11th of June, in the year
of the world 3303, the battle commenced ; it lasted four days,
and it is said 100,000 men were engaged in it. Each army
sank a royal rath or fortress ; that of the Belgaa called Rath Cro-
phorta, and that of the Dananns, Rath Fearainn ; both are pro-
bably still remaining, but not capable of identification among
the many monuments, of which vestiges still exist in this lo-
cality. Both parties were armed with swords, spears, darts,
and shields, but no mention is made of either slings or arrows ;
so it must have been a hand-to-hand fight. They did not, how-
220 THE FATHACH AND THE DAG DA.
ever, forget the wounded ; for each sank a " sanative pool" or
medicated bath in the rear of their lines, in which the wounded
bathed. That of the Dananns was presided over by Dian-
cheacht, the Machaon of the Irish Iliad ; and the circumstance
is commemorated in the name of a district bordering the Shan-
non, called Lus-magh, " the plain of the herbs," from the fact
that on it were collected the plants that formed the materia
medica with which the milk of the bath was endowed with its
healing virtues. Forward marched the Firbolgean host, headed
by the Fathach, or Druid poet — a character still remembered
traditionally by the people as the Faugliac Ruadh, or red
giant, who raised a pillar-stone against which he rested, and
sang the exploits of his warriors. The stone has disappeared,
but the eminence on which he stood is still pointed out with-
in the demesne of Moytura, on Knock-ard-na-gook, or "the
knoll on the height of the cuckoo," because, it is said that
that visitor is usually first heard there in spring. In the his-
tory of the battle this pillar-stone is called Cairthi Fathaigh, and
is said to have been the first of the kind erected on this plain.
On the other hand, we can well imagine the Dananns march-
ing to battle, incited by the Miriam-like chaunt of Edain, or
Edena, the poet-prophetess, whose name often occurs in the
history of the engagement. The Dagda More, afterwards a
king, and whose monument undoubtedly stands on the banks
of the Boyne, near Newgrange, performed deeds of surpassing
valour, until withstood by the hero Kerb, the son of Buan of
THE FIRST DAY'S FIGHT. 221
the Firbolgs. Adleo, the son of Allai, another of the Dana-
nians, was slain by Nearchu, grandson of Semeon, and a pillar-
stone, called Cairthi Adleo, was erected where he fell — probably
the Clogh-Fadha- Cwiga, or " long stone of Cong," which not
long since stood on the old road to the east of that village,
and a portion of which, 6 feet long, is still in an adjoining
wall. The only other pillar-stones in the district are, one
on the east shore of Holly Island, in Lough Corrib, and the
Clogh-Fadha Need, or "long stone of The Neale," at the junc-
tion of the roads passing northwards from Cross and Cong,
where it is said by tradition the king stood at one period of
the battle. — See page 240.
The Belgians, although not absolutely victorious, had rather
the best of the first day's fighing, having driven their enemies
back to their encampment, which probably extended from the
site of this pillar of Adloe to the western end of the Plain of
the Hurlers, along by Nymphsfield to the cross roads lead-
ing to Lough Mask, and from thence through Creevagh, in
which still stand the remains of cairns. Each Firbolg hav-
ing carried with him a stone and the head of a Danann to
their king, he erected "a great cam" to commemorate the
event. Taking into consideration the line of the two armies,
this must be the cairn of Ballymagibbon, as shown in the fol-
lowing cut, which stands near the road passing from Cong
to Cross. It is 129 yards in circumference, and about 60 feet
high ; and its original base may still be traced by a number of
222
THE SECOND DAYS FIGHTING.
upright stones. Within it there is a large cave, but it is not
at present accessible.
The next morning, before the second day's fight was com-
menced, the following incident occurred : — King Eochy, unat-
tended, went down into a certain well to perform his ablutions,
and while there observed three of the enemy "overhead," about
to seek his life. A colloquy ensued, but the Dananns would
give no quarter. He was saved, however, by one of his own
band, who slew the three, but died immediately from his wounds
on an adjoining hillock. The Firbolgs, coming up to look after
their king, there and then interred the hero who so bravely
defended him ; and, each taking a stone in his hand, erected
over him a monumental cairn. The well is not named in the
ancient account of the battle; but the little hill on which the
A CONFIRMATION OF IRISH HISTORY. 223
conflict took place is called Tulach-an-triur, "The Hill of the
Three," and the monument erected thereon Carn-in-enflxir, "The
Carn of the One Man." Such is the simple narrative of the
transaction sent down to us through bards and wandering poets
and chieftains' laureates, who perhaps, as already remarked, re-
cited it at feasts and in public assemblies — as the tales of Troy
were sung possibly before Homer was born — until the days of
letters, when the tradition was transmitted to writing, and the
annalist sped it on to the present time. Is it true ? Can it be
that a trifling incident of this nature, occurring so far back in
the night of history, can possibly bear the test of present topo-
graphical investigation, while many of our classic histories have
been questioned, and in some instances their statements dis-
proved ? Yes ; there they both remain to the present day —
the deep well, now called Mean or Meeneen uisge, in a chasm
of the limestone rock through which the floods of Lough Mask
percolate into Lough Corrib — the only drop of water that is to
be found in the neighbourhood — and so deep under the surface,
that the king must have looked upwards to see his enemies
overhead. Immediately adjoining it, on the south-east, stands
the hillock referred to in the manuscript, and now crowned
with a circle of standing stones, 176 feet in circumference, in
the centre of which are the remains of the cairn, shown by the
illustration on the following page ; and the monument is still
called Cam Meeneen uisge.
This well of the Mean-Uisge, the precise derivation of which
is not known, but which signifies either " the small watery
■>'2i
THE ONE MAN S CAIRN.
plain," or " the celebrated water," answers well the descrip-
tion afforded by the narrative ; for it is reached by a flight of
steps like those in the Pigeon Hole and other similar natural
caves near Cong. At certain seasons, when the upper floods
accumulate, the water rises almost instantaneously in a jet
through this aperture, and forms a turlough to the south of it.
After a careful examination of the locality, with a tran-
script of the ancient manuscript in his hand, the author, feel-
ing convinced of the identity of the stone heap standing with-
in the circle figured above, and by the kind permission of its
proprietor, Charles Blake, Esq., made an excavation in the
centre, telling the workmen beforehand that they would assu-
redly find a chamber in it ; and if it had not been already rifled,
the remains of the hero who so bravely defended the Firbolg
king. As much of the top of the heap had been removed for
building purposes some years ago, we soon came upon a large
smooth, horizontally placed, gritstone Hag, on raising which
THE HERO 8 GRAVE.
220
another, somewhat larger in size, was discovered. The latter
remains in situ, and covers a small square chamber, 28 inches
hio-h, and 37 wide, the walls of which are formed of small
O " 7
stones. On removing: some of these on the western side, we
found imbedded in the soft black powdery earth that had fallen
in through the apertures, and probably mixed with charcoal, the
urn here figured, and which contained the incinerated remains
of human bones. It is now in the Museum of the Academy.
This very beautiful object
is about h\ inches high,
and 6 inches wide in the
mouth, tapering gracefully
to the bottom, which is
only 2 inches broad. It is
also highly decorated all
round the lip, and has six
fillets beneath the outer
edge of the rim ; and, what
is unique in vessels of this description, four slightly elevated
knobs, like handles. The lower plain surface beneath the fillets
and handles is covered with herring-bone ornamentation. The
surface of the vessel is of a reddish-brown colour, and the in-
terior of its substance black, showing that it was submitted to
the process of baking or roasting, either in its original forma-
tion, or at the time of the pyre, or when the hot embers of the
human remains were placed within it.
Q
22(3 CATH NA BUNNEN.
Here, no doubt, the body of the loyal Firbolg youth was
burned, and his ashes collected and preserved in this urn.
Perhaps a more convincing proof of the authenticity of Irish or
any other ancient history has never been afforded.*
Immediately over and to the north and west of the site of
the foregoing incident the ground rises into the slope of To-
neleane, the "trowel-like elevation;" that of Callagh Dubh, the
" black woman," probably in reference to the Danann poetess,
the daughter of Dianceacht, and from which name in all pro-
bability the present townland of Nymphsfield takes its name ;
and the little hollow called Cath-na-Bunnen — upon all of which
the chief battle monuments of the Dananns still remain.
O'Donovan, when examining the barony of Kilmain, in 1839,
did not visit any of the monuments, which exist in the hollow
south-east of Toneleane ; but the translation which he has left
of the Cath Magh Tuireadth has directed the author to the dis-
covery of this and several other structures still existing. He
has also had the advantage of collating, with Mr. O'Looney,
O'Donovan's translation with O'Curry's transcript of the manu-
script now in the Catholic University.
This second day's contest commenced under a new set of
commanders, among whom " Aengabha of Norway," Ogma,
Midir, Bodhbh-Dearg, and Dianceacht the Physician, were con-
* See the author's communications upon the battle-field of Moytura,
laid before the Royal Irish Academy in 1866, and printed in the Proceed-
ings, vol. x., pp. 22-24.
THE PILLAR-STONES OF MAC CAELCHU. 227
spicuous as Danann leaders ; and Mella, Esc, Ferb, and Fae-
bhar, the four sons of Slainge Finn, son of King Eochy, led the
Firbolgs. The battle raged with great fury, and, according to
the spirited description in the narrative, a Danann chief named
Nemhid, son of Badhri, was slain by Slainge, and " his grave
was dug, and his pillar-stone was raised ; which is from that
day to this called Lia-Nemhidh" If this still exists, it is not
at present susceptible of identification.
It would now appear that the battle surged northwards ;
the lines extending towards the western shores of Lough Mask,
where Slainge Finn, the king's son, pursuing the two sons of
Caelchu and their followers, who had fled from the left wing
of the Danann army to the margin of the lake, killed them
there, and " seventeen flagstones were stuck in the ground
in commemoration of their death."
Here is another most remarkable confirmation of the tale ;
for by the margin of the lake in the island (or peninsula as
it is at present in summer time) of Inish-Eogan, now Inish-
owen, there stands this remarkable monument to this hour,
within an elevated and entrenched fort, as shown in the fol-
lowing illustration, with thirteen of these flat "flagstones" still
occupying the edge of the rath, some of them over 6 feet high,
by 9 inches wide, and about 4 or 5 inches thick. The site
commands a glorious prospect of the lake and the Partry range,
as well as Nephin and Ballycroy, mountains, and ( the deep
valley through which the waters of Lough na Foohy com-
q2
228
THE TURTHAS OF THE FIRBOLGS.
municate with Lough Mask. The fort is oval, and measures
22 paces across ; some of the stones are perforated ; upon the
west or water side the ditch is remarkably steep, but now
much overgrown w T ith bushes. See page 259. There was great
slaughter on both sides during this day's fighting, and the
Norwegian general was nearly overpowered in a personal con-
flict by the Red son of Mogharn, one of the Belgae ; but at
nio-htfall the Firbolgs gave way. They carried home, however,
into the presence of their king, the heads of the slain Dananns.
The Firbolgs, says the narrator, " rose out early the next
morning, and made a beautiful scell [sceall, or testudo] of their
shields over their heads, and placed their battle spears like
trees of equal thickness, and thus marched forward in Tur-
thas [columns or battalions] of battle. The Tnatha de Da-
nann, seeing the Firbolgs marching in this wise from the east-
ern head of the plain [probably from the places now known
by the townland names of Gurtachurra, Ballymagibbon, and
THE THIRD DAY'S ENGAGEMENT. 229
Knock], observed : — ' How pompously these Tuirthis of battle
march towards us across the plain !' and hence the plain was
called Magh Tuireadh, or plain of the Tuireadhs." From this
circumstance arose the name so often referred to in ancient
Irish history.
On this third day of the battle, the Dananns were com-
manded by the Dagda; for, said he, "I am your Daigh-dia"
(god of hope, or confidence, deliverer) ; and Sreng, the son
of Sengan, led the Belgae. Several personal conflicts between
the most renowned warriors are said to have taken place, the
details of which, descriptive of the arms and mode of fighting,
are related in Homeric language — [ n which it is said the hel-
mets were crushed, the metal-bound shields were battered, the
long-handled spears were shivered, and the " green-edged
[bronze] swords were dyed with blood." The Dagda slew
Kerb, one of the most famous Firbolg heroes, and the Belga?
were driven back to their camp ; but they were still able to
carry each a stone and the head of a foe, and also that of
Kerb, which they buried within their lines, and placed over it
a cairn called Cam- tin- Kerb, or the " monument of the head
of Kerb." This name is not now known ; but, considering the
line of the two armies, we are inclined to think it may be the
small stone heap a little to the west of the great monument
at Ballymagibbon, erected after the first day's battle. — See
page 222.
The line of the Belgian or Firbolg camp, or more pro-
230
THE FORTS OF MOYTURA.
bably settlement, can still be traced with wonderful accuracy,
stretching in a curvature along the lake side to the east
of Cong, where, commencing with the caher, or fort, which
lately existed at Lisloughry, " the lake fort," it extends by the
fort and cave of Lackcifinna, " the white flagstone," over the
high ground where stands Lisdujf, " the black fort," to Caher
Gerrode, that commands the whole scene ;* and thence by
Cuckoo Hill, described at page 220, where the pillar-stone
of the Fau°;ha stood, and immediately beneath which, to the
east, is Caher- Speenaun, " the thorny fort," shown by the sub-
joined illustration, taken from the north-east. The wall of
this fort, although not built of large stones, is 10 feet thick,
and 6 feet high ; its circumference is 393 feet. An outer
* Caher Gerrode, or Garret's Caher, which stands on the hill to the
north-west of Moytura House, is manifestly a modern name. The author
has lately erected a tower within it ; but the antiquity of the outer wall
is undoubted.
I'lIK BELGIAN ENCAMPMENT. 231
wall encircled this fort originally ; but at present only a few
yards of it remain, as shown by the woodcut. The inter-
space between these walls is 48 feet. Tradition says there is
a cave in the interior of this fort. When the outer walls
were being removed some years ago, several antiquities
were discovered, especially querns and iron hatchets.*
More to the south-east, on the hill of Tongegee, referred
to at page 157, and which commands a grand panoramic view
of the lake and mountains, are the remains of Caher-na-gree,
" the pleasant fort," which, with the cluster of minor erec-
tions, both military and monumental, around it, must have
been a city in itself. Still more to the east are the IAsheen,
or " little earthen fort," and the great enclosure and caves of
Calier- Phaetre, " pewter fort," immediately below the cairn
of Ballymagibbon, figured at page 201. Still more to the
east, there are the forts on Corgorave hill, and others along
the road to Cross, and so on to the immense heap of Caher-
Mayo, or the great " stone fort of Mayo," which tradition says
was intended to have been the capital ; and to the north of
which, at Attyricard, already referred to, there are several
similar structures. Then turning northwards, by Kildun and
CaherduiF, to the village of The Neale, we meet with un-
doubted evidences of the existence of a numerous population ;
* A tuath, or narrow iron hatchet, found here is now in the valuable
collection of the late Dr. Petrie.
262 THE SILVER HAM).
for it must have been the work of thousands to have brought
together those huge masses of stone, and sunk those caves.
Within the Tuatha de Danann lines we have several large
cahers, caves, and forts, extending along the eastern and
northern slopes of Benlevi, to the tower of Ardnageeha,
wherever the ground permitted of their erection. But, presum-
ing that we are correct in the topography of the battlefield,
the front of the invaders extended from the site of the Long
Stone at Cong across to Nymphsfield, where we find a cluster
of most remarkable monuments, to be described presently.
The battle was fought in the space between these two lines,
and passing off to the north, turned at The Neale again towards
the west, and concluded at the shores of Lough Mask.
On this third day of the engagement the Firbolgs were rein-
forced by the aged Fintan, and an additional Leinster army.
Both the kings commanded in person. Nuad, in a fierce en-
counter with Sreng, one of the Belgian heroes, lost his arm, but
was rescued by Aengabha, his Norwegian ally, whose exploits
are most graphically described in the manuscript. Dianceacht,
his surgeon, dressed the wound, and Credne Cerd, the artificer,
afterwards made for him a silver hand ; so that from henceforth
he was known as Nuadhat- Airgead-Lamh, or " Nuad of the
silver hand ;" and the circumstance has passed down through
the whole stream of Irish history. A monument was erected
over the kings hand where the blood dropt from it upon Cro-
Ghaile, " the enclosure of the foreigners," and which monu-
NYMPHSFIELD. 233
ment may, for aught we know, still exist.* It is also stated
that the Dananns reared up Cairtheda, or pillar-stones, to pro-
tect their men, and also to prevent their retreat.
Before proceeding with the narrative, we must here conduct
our readers to the existing Danann monuments that accumulate
in the fields opposite the glebe of Nymphsfield, to a portion
of which the locality tradition has assigned the name of Cath-
na-Bunnen, "the battle of the butts ;" because it is said that
here, when the combatants were nearly exhausted, and had
blunted, broken, or lost their swords and spears, they fought
with the butts, or handles, as the Faugaballaghs did in the
Peninsula. But perhaps this term may be only a corruption
or mispronunciation of Cath-na-Da inn, " the battle of the
Dananns." There are here five very remarkable stone circles
* Many years ago the late Rev. Dr. Walsh, father of the present
Master of the Rolls, presented to the Academy an urn containing the bones
of a human thumb which had been found in a kistvane, or stone chamber,
at Kilbride, in the County Wicklow. — See Proceedings, vol. i., p. 296.
And in the church at Waterloo we can still see the monument comme-
morative of the Marquis of Anglesea's leg.
In his note to the foregoing circumstances, as related in the Annals of
the Four Masters, under a. m. 3303, O'Donovan writes as follows: — "It
is stated in the Leabhar-Gabhala of the O'Clerys, that Diancecht and
Credne formed the hand with motion in every finger and joint, and that
Miach, the son of Diancecht, to excel his father, took off this hand, and
infused feeling and motion into every joint and vein of it, as if it were a
natural hand See O'Flaherty's Ogygia, Part iii., c. 10. In Cormac's
Glossary, the name of Diacccht is explained, ' Deus Salads' — i. bid na h-iee
■ — 'The God of Curing;.'
234
THE DANANN MONUMENTS.
still remaining within the compass of a quarter of a square
mile, and there arc traces of others. The following examples
are highly illustrative of these remarkable monuments. That
figured below consists of nineteen flat flagstones placed in a
circle, each inclining outwards, perfectly smooth on the outside,
but grooved and hollowed on their internal faces, which were
evidently those originally exposed to the action of air or water.
a-jftTT**^
A considerable portion of this circle has been removed; and
its interior, which is now planted, is 54 feet in diameter. Some
of these stones are 5 feet over ground, and are 4 feet wide,
and 8 or 10 inches thick.
Is this — and are the other circles adjoining — military, re-
ligious, commemorative, or monumental? The experience and
general belief of antiquarians is, that all these large circles arc
Druidical, and either monumental or religious. Sometimes
STONE CIRCLES. 2 of)
they undoubtedly mark the confines of a cairn or tumulus,
which latter having been removed centuries ago, the circle
has remained — as would be the case, had we continued our
excavations, and cleared away the interior of the circle of the
" One Man's Cairn," figured and described at page 224. Some
stone circles of only a few feet or yards in diameter are, no
doubt, the remains of the upright supports of dome-roofed
sepulchres ; but the experienced eye is sure to detect such use,
and it would not have been possible to roof over the spaces
that are included within the Moytura circles. Of their Drui-
dical or religious purposes we know nothing, nor are we ever
likely to know more. Some of them may mark the outer walls
of cahers, where all the other stones, possibly of smaller size,
have been removed in the course of centuries ; or they may
have been originally (in lieu of timber) raised up as defensive
stockades where, taking the warfare of the time into account,
their interiors would be places of considerable security. Com-
pare one of these circles with an ancient wall in Aran, or that
of the fort on Inishmain, figured and described at page 250.
Our ancient histories make no mention of these stone circles ;
legend, tradition, and even popular superstition, are remark-
ably silent with respect to them ; and we therefore hail with
thankfulness any inkling which this as yet unpublished tale
of the Moytura Battle can afford us as to their use. As al-
ready stated the Tuatha de Dananns, it is said, " fixed pillar-
stones in the ground to prevent their people fleeing, until
236 KELOR OF THE MAGIC EYE.
these stones should take to flight," and at the same time pro-
tect them from the enemy ; and certainly a circle of this de-
scription, formed of smooth sloping flags, with the interstices
filled up so as to form a wall 7 or 8 feet high, within which
200 men could easily stand, would answer all the purposes of
an entrenched camp.
Now, among the most renowned personages of that age
whose names and exploits have descended to our own time
was Belor, the great Fomorian giant, who is said to have
had a third eye in the centre of his forehead, with the basi-
lisk power of which, when uncovered, he could, even at a
great distance, kill or petrify his enemies.* There is a vivid
tradition among the people that such a personage was at the
Cath-Magh-Tuireadh-Cunga, and that the persons who erected
these forts and circles, dreading his power over their soldiers,
painted the figures of warriors on the outer surfaces of these
flat stones ; so that, as an old man once told me on the spot,
" when the Fomorian necromancer, standing on the fort of
Lackafinna about half a mile off, or at Ardnagook, and turn-
ing his magical eye on them, perceived that he had not
tumbled any of them — for he used to melt people with his
eyes, he went away in disgust." The name of this hero is not
known traditionally in this neighbourhood, and there is no
mention made of him in the manuscript account of the first
* Could it be possible that at that period Belor had an optical instru-
ment by which he might see at a distance?
THE NYMPHSFIELD CIRCLES.
237
battle of Moytura ; but we know, that " Belor of the mighty-
blows" was killed at the second or northern battle of Moy-
tura, subsequently fought in the county Sligo. It is with the
Faugha Ruadh, or great red giant, already referred to, that
local tradition associates this circumstance.
At the south-west corner of the same field, opposite the
glebe of the Rev. E. L. Moore, the present rector of this parish,
there is another circle, of which the subjoined is a graphic
representation. It consists of a series of standing stones, and
is 152 feet in diameter. Within and around this and the ad-
j oining fields, to the south and east, several perfect circles still
exist, and the sites of others can still be traced within the
confines of Cath-na-Bunnen ; so that here was evidently the
stronghold of one of the contending armies.
238 CAHER MAC TURC.
Where the glebe now stands there existed, about forty
years ago, the great Danann stronghold called C alter- Mac- Turc,
"the caher of the son of the wild boar," and by some called
Cahev-more and Caher-Biel, the stones of which were used in
erecting the parsonage ; and the slope in front of the latter yet
marks a portion of its site. Half a century ago, before the
same knowledge existed, or the same interest was felt in the
preservation of national or historic monuments as at present,
but little attention was paid to the preservation of such struc-
tures. Thanks to George Crampton, Esq., son of the late
Rector of Cong, we have been furnished with a map and de-
scription of this great caher, which was perhaps one of the
largest in Ireland, and resembled Dun-Aengus or Dim- Conor,
and others in Aran. It was circular, and enclosed a space
of about half an acre. The inner wall was about 7 or 8 feet
high, and 10 or 12 thick, and sloped from without inwards,
with an opening or doorway 12 feet wide. In the central space
was a small circular building, which in modern times was
called by the people "the gaol," the wall of which was 3 feet
thick. In removing the caher, several ancient iron weapons,
and the stones of some querns or hand-mills, were discovered.
After the Danann king was wounded, Brcas, his grand-
son, charged the Firbolgs with great fury, but was cut down
by the hand of Eochy. That, however, Breas, the son of
Ealathan, was not killed, is manifest from the context of the
MS., as well as the general tenor of history, for he subse-
THE FIGHT CONTINUED. 23 ( J
quently reigned during the period that Nuad was disabled
from his wound. Then the Dagda, Ogma, Allad, and Del-
way (evidently Scandinavian names), rushed on King Eochy,
but were repulsed for a while by his four grandsons, the sons
of Slainge, all of whom, however, fell in the engagement; and
" the place where they were interred is called Leaca-Mhac-
Slainge, ' the flags of the sons of Slainge.' "
On the other side, the four sons of Gann charged down
the Danann lines, but they also were killed by Gobnen, the
smith ; Lucry, the carpenter ; Dianceacht, the surgeon, and
Aengabha ; and their monument was called Ditrnha-Mac-Gainn,
" the mound of the sons of Gann." Then the three sons of
Orddan, the Firbolg Druid, next essayed to break the Danann
columns, but were slain by the sons of Cainte ; and " the
place where they were buried is called Dumha-na-n-Druadh"
or " the Druid's mound." Afterwards, the cohorts of the in-
vaders, along with Inchar and Incharba, advanced, and charged
the BelgaB, but were withstood by Carbre, the son of Den and
the sons of Buan, whom however they slew ; and, says the
MS., "the leachts at which they were interred are called Leaca-
Mac-Buain, and the grave of Cairbre lies outside their leachts
or monuments." Could we but identify them, there are all
round this spot sufficient monuments to choose from for these
erections, notwithstanding centuries of cultivation, and, alas !
years of ruthless destruction.
The Belgian columns were evidently driven back, and the
2 40
THE LONG STONE OF THE NEALE.
battle passed, as on the occasion of the second day's fighting,
to the north-east. The sons of the two kings, Looe the strong,
son of Nuad, and Slainge the fair, son of Eochy, after a fierce
encounter slew each other. The
grave where the Danann hero was
buried is called Lia-Looee, and is in
all likelihood the "long stone of The
Neale" already referred to, and here
figured. It is a very notable object
at the fork of the road, to the south
of the village, and is now 4 \ feet
over ground. — See page 221. There
are many traditions about Looe-
lamh-fada, the long-handed son of
King Nuad, still in the mouths of
the people in this district.
Following the track of the Da nanus during this third day's
engagement, we approach the Parish of KlLMOLAEA, commonly
called The Neale, but the parish church of which happens to be
situated in the parish of Cong. Adjoining the village is The
Neale House, the residence of Lord Baron Kilmaine, and within
the demesne there are several monuments of much interest, al-
though not noticed by writers. A large stone heap, now faced
with steps, and crowned by a weathercock, contains, we be-
lieve, in its interior the nucleus of a cairn, and may probably be
that erected over Slainge himself. In the grounds adjoining a
THE NEALE INSCRIPTION.
241
comparatively modern structure has been erected over some
sculptured figures of considerable antiquity, although not refer-
rible to the days of Moytura. They are placed in front of an
ancient cave, and are popularly known as "The Gods of The
Neale." That, however, which is of undoubted antiquity, and
well worthy the serious attention of philologists and antiquaries,
is a flat mass of gritstone placed in the orchard wall, and now
nearly obscured with ivy, and of which, with the permission of
the noble proprietor, we have been permitted to publish an
account. It measure snearly 15 inches each way, and bears
the inscription, in sunken letters, faithfully represented by the
accompanying illustration,
taken from a carefully made
rubbing. These characters
are perhaps the oldest let-
ters that have yet been dis-
covered in Ireland, and are
evidently of greater anti-
quity than those upon the
Inchangoill monument. Mr.
J. O'B. Crowe reads this de-
notative inscription thus: —
Lon Fecnan, Ecclesia Fecnan, the Ion, laun, place, or church,
of Fecna (genitive Fecnan), perhaps the Fecnan of Adamnan
or some Fechna of Mayo of the Saxons. — See Colgan's "Trias
Thaum." page 378. Other philologists to whom it was sub-
R
242 THE FOURTH DAv's FIGHT.
mitted have not as yet thrown more light upon its interpreta-
tion. Of the antiquity of this inscribed monument there can
be no doubt. It is said to have been brought here from the
old church of Brefy, below Castlebar.* The mode in which
the letters were picked out, possibly with a flint or hard sharp
stone, is well shown in the illustration.
The fourth day's battle drew to a close ; the flower of the
Firbolg army was cut off; and its king, greatly fatigued, and
far removed from the well of the Mean-uisge, and there being
then — as there is literally now — no water in the place, was sorely
oppressed with thirst ; so he committed the command to Sreng,
and fled with a chosen band across the plain, from near The
Neale in a north-western direction towards Lough Mask. The
MS., which rather inclines to the native or Firbolg side of the
question, relates that the Dananian Druids, hearing of the ex-
tremity in which Eochy was placed, magically concealed all the
wells, rivers, and fountains — probably a mist surrounded them.
The king and his attendants were pursued by the three sons
of Nemed Mac-Baclhrai, and 150 followers; and after a fierce
conflict on the lake shore, which is described with great spirit,
* On a stone built into the wall, beneath this monument, can be read the
following inscription : — "The above stone was found at Brefy, in the Co. of
Mayo, A. d. 1732, in a coffin, inscribed in Irish characters, the coffin of Ge-
nan, which contained a skeleton, 12^ feet long. Genan was King of Ireland,
a. m. 3352, P. d. 7024, a. c. 1G81 ; and this monument is erected to show the
antiquity of the Irish character and the size of mankind in those early ages.
a. D. 175G." The foregoing speaks for itself.
eochy's cairn,
243
and in which the king slew his three youthful assailants, he
himself expired. " Thus fell," says the MS., " the mighty
Eochy ! A lofty earn was raised over his body, which is to
this day to be seen at Traigh Eothuile, and called Cam Eathach
from his name ; and at the western extremity of that strand
still exist the monuments of his slayers, called Leaca Mac-Ne-
mid/i, ' the flags of the sons of Nemidh.' '
On the great grassy hill of Killower, or Carn, from which
the townland takes its name — overlooking Lough Mask, from
which it is about a mile distant, and commanding a view of
the entire country, stands to this hour the most extensive and
remarkable cairn in the West of Ireland — that figured below,
and which, we entertain but little doubt, was erected to com-
memorate the fate of Eochy Mac Ere, the last of the Firbolg
Kings of Erin.
u 2
244 CAHER ROBERT.
Crowning the summit of the eminence is a ditch and ram-
part, the top of which is 2500 paces in circumference, and on
it are still some standing stones, especially near the entrance
on the W. N. W. side. A space twenty yards wide intervenes
between the top of this rampart and the outer margin of the
cairn. The tumulus undoubtedly contains central chambers,
and a remarkable and partially open passage encircles its base.
The view from the top is very grand ; on the extreme west
we have Benlevi and the Partry range of mountains rising
from the lake, with the Eeek of St. Patrick peeping over
them ; more to the north is Nephin, the hill of Cultamaugh,
Balla, and the country about Claremorris, and so all round
the distant eastern end of the plain to Knockma, whence the
eye again turns westwards to the shores of Lough Corrib.
Between this point and The Neale, on the east, and stretch-
ing round to Nymphsfield, on the south, the ground over
which King Eochy fled exhibits no trace of water, and scarcely
any vestige of early occupation. As yet the flagstones of the
sons of Nemid have not been identified, although a ruined
cromleach, somewhat to the south-west of our position, on the
sloping ground above Caher Kobert, evidently mark the site
of an ancient monument. Above these are the remains of two
caves ; and about half a mile to the south-east of the " Cam"
stands the remarkable square dry-stone enclosure, forty-four
paces in width, and containing a well-built cave in the centre,
which is called Caher Ribert, or " Robert's Fort." Its walls
SQUARE FORTS. 245
are 6 feet high, and '1\ thick ; and the western square-topped
doorway, with its massive lintel and sloping sides, would ap-
pear to be the type of the early Christian edifices to which
reference has been so frequently made. It is 4 feet 10 inches
high, 3 feet 2 inches wide at the bottom, and 2 feet 10 inches
at top. This form of caher, although represented in Aran,
is rather scarce, and is evidently of later date than the cir-
cular ones. A square fort or enclosure may still be traced
among the rocks, about half a mile to the north of Aughalard
Castle.* Immediately at the western foot of this hill is the
great natural and artificial cave mentioned at page 209 ; and
nearly in the same line we see several other raths and cahers —
Lough Mask Castle, Ballinchalla church, the ruins of Inishmain
Abbey, and the fort and standing stones over the water's edge
at Inishowen, already figured and described at page 227 ;
while more to the north rises the last great battle monument,
* In order to visit this portion of our route, the tourist, passing along
the road from Cong by the Glebe and the cross roads to The Neale,
reaches a site once known as Cross -Davy, where an ancient sculptured
cross formerly stood, until removed about fifty years ago by religious fa-
naticism, backed by legal injustice. Then, taking the northern road through
Creevagh — Caher-Robert, Eochy's Carn, and the antiquities to be described
in the next chapter, can be visited. The lower road from Lough Mask
Castle into Cong will take the tourist to Aughalard, and on by the Pigeon
Hole, to his hotel ; or carry him by the lake margin to Maam. — See the
map.
24() THE BATTLE PEACE.
called Caher Bowen, and also the well of Dermod and Graine :
and the forts in the demesne of Cushlough.
Our accouut of the battle and battle-field of Moytura here
closes ; both parties withdrew after the fourth day's fighting —
the dispirited Firbolgs to their camp along Corrib shore, and
the Dananians to their mountain fortress. Both parties inter-
red their dead ; and it is said the former " raised Dumhas [or
tumuli] over their nobles ; raised Leaca [or flagstones] over
their heroes ; Ferilias [graves] over the soldiers ; and Knocs [or
hillocks] over the champions." Sreng and the other remaining
descendants of Gann held a war council ; and, having but 3000
men remaining, they discussed the question of leaving the
country in the possession of the invaders, dividing the king-
dom, or risking another battle ; and, as they were inferior in
numbers, they demanded single combat, and challenged the
Dananns to fight man to man. This was refused ; but a peace
was ratified, by which Sreng and the Firbolgs, or Belgae, re-
tained the province of Connaught, to which those of that
nation then resorted from all quarters, and where there is no
doubt some remnant of that race still remains. A portion of
the Belga3, possibly the warriors and soldiers, fled across Lough
Corrib to the Islands of Aran ; where, perhaps dreading ano-
ther invasion, they raised those stupendous barbaric monu-
ments that still exist there, the wonder and admiration of
antiquaries and historians, as they are undoubtedly the most
HISTORIC MATERIALS. 247
extensive, as well as the oldest, structures of their kind in
Europe.*
The Tuatha de Dananns elected Breas, son of Elaethan, to
reign during the period of Nuada's convalescence, which it is
said occupied seven years. Under A. M. 3310 we read — " This
was the seventh year of Breas over Ireland, when he resigned
the kingdom to Nuadhat, after the cure of his hand by Dian-
cecht, assisted by Creidne the artificer, for they put a silver
hand upon him ;" and in 3330, " at the end of the twentieth
year of the reign of Nuadhat of the Silver Hand, he fell in
the battle of Magh-Tuireadh na bh-Fomorach, by Balor of the
mighty blows, one of the Fomorians." From this we learn that,
according to the computed chronology, twenty-seven years
elapsed between the first or southern and the second or north-
ern battle of Moytura, which was fought in the parish of Kil-
mactranny, barony of Tirerrill and county of Sligo. By many
writers, ancient and modern, these two battles and battle-fields
have been mixed up ; but we trust the foregoing narrative
and topographical description will prevent further mistakes of
this nature.
The bare historic fact, with but few details of the great
battle of Moytura, has been mentioned in all our annals, and is
told in most of our ancient Irish MSS. of authority ; from which,
* See Mr. Haverty's graphic account of the visit of the Ethnological
section of the British Association to the Islands of Aran in 1857, which
the author had the honour of conducting.
248 HISTORIC MATERIALS OF MOYTURA.
however, it was here unnecessary to quote, as they do not
enter into details, and no effort has heretofore been made to
identify the locality. The unpublished manuscript from which
the foregoing account has been extracted is preserved in the
Library of Trinity College, H, 2. 17, commencing at page 291 ;
it was transcribed at Moy-Enne, near Bally shannon, by Cor-
mac O'Cuirnin, probably in the fifteenth century ; but the tale
itself is referred to by Cormac Mac Cullinan, King and Bishop
of Cashel, the most learned man of his age, when he wrote
his celebrated Glossary, in the ninth century. The translation
which the author had access to was that made for the Ord-
nance Survey by the late Dr. John O'Donovan, and which is
preserved in one of the manuscript books of the Ordnance Sur-
vey for the county of Mayo, to which we have so frequently
referred.* It would have exceeded the limits of this book to
have described the battle more at length ; but an alphabetical
list of the names of those who fought upon both sides, and
the significant meanings of which so much resemble those of
North American Indians, would, we think, be of some interest
to the philologists of the present day. — See Appendix.
* There are also other copies of the Cath-Magh-Tuireadh nearly para-
phrastic of the foregoing, and also giving descriptions of the engagement
at Ballisadare, or Kilmactranny, preserved in the British Museum ; and a
copy of which, made by a son of the late Eugene O'Curry, is now in the
Library of the Catholic University — See O'Curry's Lectures upon "The
Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History," pp. 241, 250, &c. The
British Museum manuscript was transcribed by Gilla-Riabhaeh-O'Cleary
about the year 1460.
CHAPTER IX.
LOUGH MASK.
PARISH OF BALLLNCHALLA. LOUGH MASK CASTLE. EDMOND DE BURGO.
INISHUAIN. EOGAN-BEIL AND ST. CORMAC. INISHMAIN ABBEY. AN-
CIENT FORT. THE PENITENTIARY. INISHOWEN. THE HAG'S CASTLE.
ROSS HILL. ST. PATRICK^ CHURCH. UPPER LOUGH CORRIB. DOON
AND CASTLE KIRK. ST. FECHEN's AND ST. ENNA's WELLS. CAIS-
LEAN NA KIRKA. MAAM.
The battle of southern Moytura, which we traced in a curved
direction from the vicinity of Cong, ended, as already stated,
on the borders of Lough Mask, and in the parish now popu-
larly called Ballachalla, where we are at present supposed to
stand. In the hagiologies this parish is called Cala-Locha-
Measga ; and in the Irish, JBaile-an- Chala, "the bally or town
of the Caladh, or 'Port of Lough Mask;' " for, although the
term "callow" is applied, in the counties of Roscommon and
Galway, to the holm, flat, or inch, generally subject to inunda-
tion on the borders of a lake or river, it is here applied to
a landing-place for boats. — See O'Donovan's letters in the
"Ordnance Survey Book" for Mayo, page 80.
This parish extends along the eastern border of Lough
Mask from the parish of Cong to that of Ballinrobe, having
250
LOUGH MASK CASTLE.
Kilmolara on the east. Within it are the great tumuli of Carn
Bowen and Killower, and also Caher-Robert, already described ;
but we have now only to visit its lake margin. To the left
of the road leading down to the water stand the ruins of the
little church of Ballachalla, of no great antiquity, but still much
used as a burial place. Continuing our route to the water's
edge over a road formed of the natural limestone rock, which
here rises to the surface in enormous flags — and which path
is called Ballin-Coirp, " the road of the corpses," on their
EDMOND DE BURGO. 251
way to the cemetery, in the adjoining abbey of Inishmain,
— we pass under the picturesque ruin of Lough Mask Castle,
standing on a high scarped rock, and commanding a glorious
prospect of the scenery to the west.
This ancient fortified dwelling of the De Burgos, faithfully
pictured by the foregoing illustration, is known in the annals
by the name of the townland of Baile-Locha-Measga, in which
it is placed. Upon a massive decorated chimney-breast ad-
joining one of the mullioned windows is the following inscrip-
tion :— Stomas 23obrfce • 3E|^& • 1618 • Icllcs 23btler,—
who, no doubt, occupied, and probably restored, this struc-
ture. It is said to have been built by one of the " English
barons " in 1238 ; and we know that in 1338, when Edmond
De Burgo, the ill-fated son of the Earl of Ulster, was abducted
from the Friars' House at Ballinrobe on Low Sunday, the
19th of April, " he was that night carried to Lough Mask
Castle,"* which then probably belonged to Sir William Burke,
of the Eighter or Mayo branch of that great family.
The next night he spent in Ballindeonagh Castle, near
Petersburgh, at the southern or lower end of the lake ; and on
the third he was murdered at an island in that arm of the lake,
since known as " The Earl's Island." — See page 98. His sister
* See O'Flaherty's " West Connaught," p. 47. Lough Measg, Measca,
or Mask, is so called from its mingling, meascadh, with the waters of Loughs
Carra and Comb. Sir Thomas Bourke re-edified this castle after the
battle of Kinsale, in 1602.
252 THE PALACE OF EOGAN-BEIL.
and heir married Lionel, Duke of Clarence. In 1412 Brian
O'Conor destroyed the castle of Baile-Locha-Measca by fire ;
and in 1416, when another Edmond Burke plundered the ter-
ritory of Mac-Feoris, round the southern end of the lake, he
took Bermingham himself prisoner, and confined him in this
castle.
Passing over the little stream that now divides Inishmain
(no longer an island, but a peninsula) from the mainland, we
approach a charming group of ruins, standing by the water's
edge, surrounded by well-grown timber, and consisting of the
outer castellated gateway of an abbey, and beyond it one of
the most beautiful churches in Ireland.* Before, however, we
enter the sacred precincts, or proceed to examine the ruins of
Christian times, let us look back upon the early history of this
locality. Across this and the neighbouring island to the west,
both of which were probably always accessible in summer time,
the Firbolgs pursued the Tuatha de Dananns, and slew the sons
of Cailchu upon the lake shore, where their stone circle still
remains, as already shown at page 227. It is said Eogan-Beil,
King of Connaught, had a " palace" here in the sixth century,
from which circumstance the western island is to this day
called Inish-Eoghain, or Inishowen. O'Donovan, labouring
under the impression that this stone circle, which is evidently
* Lough Mask Castle is the property of the Earl of Erne ; the islands of
Inishmain and Inishowen, that of Lord Baron Kilmaine ; and the great earn
of Killower belongs to Captain Cooper.
ST. CORMAc's PROPHECY. 253
monumental, might have been the habitation of the old king,
says in one of his letters, written in 1838, "The remains of
this palace puzzles me very much, though it is not very un-
like Dun-an-Sciath at Lough Annuinn, now Ennell. in West-
meath." There can, however, be no doubt that it is one of
the Moytura monuments. It is equally certain that the foun-
dations of the ancient caher, or stone fort, of King Beil, stood
upon the site of the abbey, and a considerable portion of its
circle may yet be traced beyond its western end.
From the Book of Lecan Colgan gives a translation of the
following saintly legend, which possibly refers to the end of
the fifth century : — 6i St. Cormac came first to the palace of
Eugenius, surnamed Bell, son of Kellach, King of Connaught,
who at that time dwelt in a certain fort, called afterwards from
his name Dun-Eogan, lying in a certain lake in West Con-
naught, which is commonly called Loch Measca. But the
servant of God was not received with that honour due to him,
nor with the offices of humanity. Wherefore, the saint,
with a menacing and true prophecy, foretold what he had
foreseen by inspiration would happen to that residence. For
he predicted that that fort would not be hereafter the seat of
kings, but that a domicile of the servants of Christ, and of
monks, was to be erected in its place. The truth of this pro-
phecy has been proved by the event ; for on that island, com-
monly called Inis-Moedoin, in which the vestiges of that fort,
afterwards level with the ground, are seen, a monastery was
254
[NISHMAIN ABBEY
erected, which from that time remained the habitation of de-
voted servants of Christ."
The next notice of Inis Moedoin, Inishmain, or the middle
island, which we find is in the Annals of the Four Masters un-
der A. D. 1223, " Maelisa, the son ofTurlough O'Conor, prior
of Inishmain, died." This ecclesiastic was the eldest of the
three legitimate sons of the great Turlough More ; and it ap-
pears that he embraced a religious life in his youth, and left
his younger brothers to contend with each other for the sove-
reignty of Connaught and the crown of Ireland.
When, by whom, or for what order this abbey was erected,
neither history nor tradition gives the slightest clue ; but it
was probably built between the
twelfth and fourteenth centuries,
and it very likely occupies the site
of the original church of St. Cor-
mac, and the small square-headed .^
doorway of which is in all proba- f
bility that by which the nave of
the church was entered from the
northern side, although it may
have been carried there from its
original locality in the west gable
of the saint's Daimlaght. This door-
way, here figured, is' quite incongruous in either period or ar-
chitecture, with the noble, highly-decorated structure in which
INISHMAIN ABBEY.
2dd
it is placed. There is no arch above it. Whoever built Inish-
main exhibited great taste, as well as skill, and, possibly in
pious remembrance of the prophecy of St. Cormac, preserved
this portion of his church, which was very likely all that re-
mained of it when the more modern building was commenced.
The entire length of this great church is 62 feet, the breadth of
the nave is 21 J feet, the chancel is 20 feet by 15. Its arch no
longer exists ; but, the grand cluster of pillars that still re-
main upon the southern side, show that it must have been of
great beauty and vast size, as may be seen by this illustration.
Fortunately that great Irish church preserver, the Hedera Hi-
bernica, has long since thrown its arms around this beauteous
2o$
IMSHMAIN ABBEY.
ruin, or a single stone of Inishmain Abbey would no longer
stand upon another. The capitals of
these pillars are decorated with floral
embellishments such as that here ex-
hibited, which somewhat resembles
those of Cong and Athenry, with
which it was probably coeval. Upon
each side of the narrowed chancel there
is a square structure, 16 feet by 12^,
apparently more for domestic than
ecclesiastical uses. The east window
consists of two narrow circular-headed
lights, the outer mouldings both upon the inside and the out-
side of which terminate in well-carved grotesque figures ; the
square doorway on the northern side ; and a breach into one
of the side structures, previously alluded to, are well shown in
the foregoing illustration. If this was indeed an abbey, it pro-
bably belonged to the Augustinians, and was dependent on that
of Gong.
Among the rocks, a little to the west of the ecclesiastical
enclosure, there still exist the remains of an ancient circular
fort, the walls of which, although frequently repaired, as it is
used occasionally for a sheep pen, are so characteristic of the
ancient mode of building, and so like those seen in similar
structures in Aran, that the following sketch is inserted. It
was probably one of the outworks of King Bid's fortress. If
EOGAX BEIL S FOR III ESS.
257
the intermediate masonry were removed, these long upright
stones would present what is termed a Druidical circle
Passing westwards from Inishmain church by the stone en-
closure figured above, the author last year discovered, among
the limestone rocks that slope towards the lake, a very cu-
rious structure, of which the illustration on the following page
is a graphic representation. It is a square unmortared build-
ino-, 12J feet high, and 15 feet wide, with a set-off 7-|- feet from
the ground ; and, with the exception of the crypts on the west
face, as shown in the cut, is perfectly solid, and formed of
undressed stone.
These crypts are certainly the most remarkable and in-
explicable structures that have yet been discovered in Ireland.
At top they are formed somewhat like the roof of a high-
pitched Gothic church, with long stone ribs or rafters abutting
S
258
THE PENITENTIARY.
upon a low side wall, and meeting each other at top, as shown
in the accompanying engravings. The intervals between these
sloping stones, some of which are 4 feet long, are filled up with
layers of stone laid horizontally. The illustration upon the op-
posite page, taken from the inside of the northern crypt, gives a
fair representation of this roofing, above and around which the
entire structure seems to be a solid mass of stone work. The
flooring is also composed of narrow stone joists placed a few
inches apart, so that air can come up between them, and the
partition between the crypts is so thin, that, although not per-
vious to light, conversation can be kept up between them.
Each is on an average 5 feet high throughout, and about
3 wide ; there arc five stone ribs or rafters in the roof of the
THE CLAN SYSTEM OF THE o'fLAHERTYS. 291
The east wall alone of this grand revelling chamber is
standing. Under it flowed the Drimneen, covered by a na-
tural arch, which having given way, all the western side was
precipitated into the abyss below ; where, no doubt, if exca-
vations were made, many of its sculptured stones would be
discovered.
The De Burgos claim the erection or re-edification of this
castle ; but, besides all other probabilities as to its being origi-
nally built by, as it was undoubtedly occupied by, the O'Fla-
hertys in the sixteenth century — when in all likelihood the
bulk of the present structure was erected — we learn from va-
rious sources that the latter occupied this district uninterrupt-
edly from the eleventh century till almost the present time.
In the records relating to this family will be found the best ac-
count, as well as the last remnant, of the feudal or clan sys-
tem in Ireland ; when The O'Flaherty, besides the various petty
chieftains dependent on him, had his allotted body guard, co-
morbs, physicians, equerries, and brehons, as well as his stand-
ard bearer, guardian of reliques, poet, historian, genealogist,
master of the revels, steward, keeper of the bees, and collec-
tor of revenues, &c. ; whose names, and the townlands allotted
for their services, were enumerated in the twelfth century.*
One of the last notices of this fortress is that given under
* See the Annals of the Four Masters ; but particularly Hardiman's notes
to O'Flaherty's " History of West Connaught," already frequently referred
to ; also, Petrie in the " Irish Penny Journal" for 4th Jul}', 1840.
U 2
292 SUPPOSED CROMLEACHS.
the year 1572, in which Sir Edward Phiton [Fitton], President
of Connaught, " after having half destroyed the castle, took
complete possession of it, and left such part of it as remained
undestroyed to Murrough-na-Dtuagh O'Flaherty."
Part of Kilcummin parish stretches still further eastwards
along the lake shore, which it separates from the parish of Kil-
nin, until the latter divides it from Moycullen, near the ferry
of Knock, already described at page 86. Retracing our steps,
and regaining the Galway road, we again proceed eastward by
Killeroon church, near which there is a granite boulder with a
bullaun excavated in it ; and then by the standing stones* of Lact-
* Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, in their " Ireland, its Scenery, Character,
&c.," say that, when within a few miles of Oughterard, " our astonishment
was excited by perceiving a prodigious collection of Cromleachs, of the ex-
istence of which we believe no traveller has taken note, but which certainly
demand extensive and minute attention. These huge circles of stone
were so numerous, that at first we imagined them to be merely accidental
occurrences in the rocky soil ; but repeated examinations convinced us,
that they were as much artificial erections as any of the monuments of
which we have encountered so many in various parts of the country."
They also fix the site of " this great city of the Druids" as being
near the old road at this point, and say, " It occupies the whole of an
extended plain on the height of a steep hill, and in the valley beneath
is seen the old Castle of Aughnanure," of which latter magnificent for-
tress they take no further notice, except by a short extract in a note from
the " Irish [not the Dublin] Penny Journal." The authors go on to say,
" The space literally covered by these Druidic stones, of all shapes and sizes,
extends for above two miles, and we imagine it would not be difficult to
count a thousand of them. The circles were of varied sizes, some very
LOUGH NANEEVIN. 293
gannon, already referred to, into the parish of KlLLANNlN, which
derives its name from Saint Annin, V., whose well and church
stand by the northern margin of Ross Lake, below the main
road. Upon the right of the highway is the small sheet of water
called Lough Naneevin, the little wooded island upon which
is believed to have been artificially enlarged, and fortified into
a crannoge * The next object of note occurring in succession
small, in others so large as apparently to be half a mile in circumference ;
and although in most instances the props which supported the huge
rock had crumbled under its weight, sufficient proofs of their former exist-
ence were left in nearly every case." — See vol. iii., p. 466. It would be great
injustice to Ireland, and to the tourist or reader who has accompanied us
thus far round the shores of Lough Corrib, if we omitted to direct attention
to, and, if it existed, to describe this wonderful place ; but we fear our
distinguished friends either saw it in the gloaming, or were imposed upon
by some psewcfo-antiquary ; and indeed their concluding words lead us
to believe that they did not pay sufficient attention to this locality; for
they say, " Our leisure did not permit us to make a very minute scrutiny
of this truly wonderful place; but our brief note of it may, and no doubt
will, induce such an examination of it as it undoubtedly demands." There
are no cromleachs, and the only remains of stone circles in this district are
those at Laghtgannon, referred to at p. 286. In one of these there are still
seven standing stones, and the site of ten others is visible in the vicinity.
There was also one formerly on the glebe, but an agricultural incumbent
had it removed. All these forts are marked on the 6-inch Ordnance Map.
* See Mr. Kinahan's paper on this subject in the Proceedings of the
Royal Irish Academy, vol. x., p. 25. We have not availed ourselves of the
author's illustration ; for, although we were the first to describe these la-
custrine habitations in Ireland, so early as 1842, and have since examined
and described a great number of them, we have not yet seen any grounds
for believing in the " ideal sketch" just published by our friend. The onlv
294 st. brecan's church.
along the main road is the extensive, well-wooded, and pictu-
resque demesne of Ross, the property of James Martin, Esq.,
on the northern or left hand side, with the pretty lake an-
ciently called Lough Lonan, in an island of which there are
still some vestiges of the old castle of Ohery.
A short distance from Lough Naneevin, and upon our right,
nearly opposite the gate of Koss, embosomed in a thick foliage
of trees, stands Teampull-Brecan, the small very early mission-
ary " church of St. Brecan," which had, no doubt, originally a
square-headed Cyclopean doorway in the western gable, and is
especially remarkable for its small circular-headed window in
the eastern gable, 42 inches high, and 21 wide, with the arch
formed of a single stone, like that at Killarsagh, and which
affords evidence of its great antiquity. This gable is 17 feet
wide. About 40 yards westwards of this church lies a double
bullaun, or ancient stone font, such as those described at pages
148, 164, 296, and 303, &c. From this by the main road to
Galway, as we pass into the parish of Moycullen, for some
distance, there is no object of antiquarian interest, until we
reach the little ruined church of Kilcallan, in the demesne of
Knockbane, the property and handsome residence of the late
Anthony O'Flaherty, Esq., formerly M. P. for Galway town.
This church, which stands within the enclosure of an ancient
well-established crannoge in the neighbourhood of Lough Corrib is that
upon Lough Kirabe, near the high road between Shrule and Tuara See the
author's Catalogue of Antiquities in Royal Irish Academy, part i., p. 230.
KILLANNIN PARISH. 295
fort, is 34 feet long, and 18 broad, but possesses no feature of
interest worthy the attention of the tourist.
The parish of Killannin, still under our consideration, is,
as already stated, of a most irregular form, having appertain-
ing to it the island of Inchmicatreer, ten miles distant, upon
Lough Corrib. It lies between Moycullen on the east, and
Kilcummin on the west, and has a narrow stripe of that parish,
and a portion of the lake shore on its northern margin, while
its south-western extremity extends to the sea. The ancient
territory of Gnobeg stretching eastward along Lough Corrib
from the north-western end of Ross Lake, through this parish,
and including those of Moycullen and Rahoon, to the town of
Galway, presents several objects of great interest to the north
of the main road.
Passing down along a by-road between Lough Xaneevin
and St. Brecan's church, behind Ross demesne, to the Roman
Catholic chapel of Killannin, which occupies a conspicuous
position on a bluff esker, running nearly east and west, we
reach a group of ruins well worthy of inspection. Upon a
knoll in a green field upon our right, and surrounded by
thorn bushes, is the very ancient cell, or miniature church, of
Teampull-beg-na-Neave, "the little church of the saint," probably
St. Annin, whose memory is still venerated here ; and whose
well, which remains by the shore of Lough Lonan, is resorted
to on her festival day, the 18th of January. This diminutive
building measures on the outside 20 feet 4 inches by 16 feet
296
TEAMPULL-BEG-XA-NEAYE.
4 inches. The eastern gable has fallen below the level of any
window which may have existed there, and the side walls are
also much dilapidated ; but its western gable is still preserved,
and marks the style and age of this structure.
The accompanying graphic and accurate illustration, from
a drawing by Dr. K. Willis, shows every stone in the western
face of this gable, with its square-headed doorway, which lat-
ter is 5 feet 6 inches high, and measures 24 inches wide at
bottom, and 21^ at top — so as to give the usual incline to the
jambs. These arc 2 feet 3 inches thick, and the stones forming
their inner sides are the only ones in the church which show
any signs of dressing, — and they were probably rubbed flat.
In a clump of bushes a little to the south-east of this church
may be seen a very perfect bidlmtn, u bason stone," or rude
KILLANNIN CHURCH. 297
font, similar to those already described in several other locali-
ties, and referred to at page 294.
Still more to the south-east, and romantically situated among
massive rocks and boulders, in the midst of an ancient and
well-filled graveyard, stands the ruined, but comparatively mo-
dern church of Killannin (or, as it is sometimes spelled, Killan-
nin) ; but, with the exception of the pointed-arched doorway
in the southern wall, the small eastern light, and the fact
that it is not placed due east and west like its earlier sister just
described, but runs W. N. W by E.S.E., it possesses no inte-
rest for the antiquary. It is 48 feet 4 inches long, and 24J feet
broad from out to out ; and, with the exception of the door and
window, is altogether constructed of large undressed stones.
Adjoining the southern side is the mortuary chapel of the
Martins, of a later date, and more carefully built than the
church ; it contains the massive vault of some of the members
of this once powerful family. This tomb is now open to the
winds, and occasionally a receptacle for some of the neigh-
bouring stock ; and, although not a whited sepulchre without,
it is perfectly congruous with the scriptural simile within. The
present time, in which we are labouring to revive the archi-
tecture as well as the opinions of our ancestors, is specially
characterized by a want of reverence for the remains of the
dead. From an inscription over this mausoleum we learn that
it was erected for Anthony Martin, Fitz Richard, of Dangan, in
1748. Much of the surrounding district — over which this tribe
298 THE MARTINS AND THE " LAW LIFE."
reigned supreme, and against whose misgovernment so many
eloquent appeals were made in Parliament, and such withering
philippics were hurled by newspaper commissioners — remains,
as already stated at page 279, in the same, if not a worse con-
dition than when the last of the Martin line fled an outcast
from her country, and died in poverty.* We have no desire
to digress for the purpose of again inquiring into the condition
of the " Law Life Estates," which here, as in other portions
of our route, surround us ; but we would, for the sake of the
country, suggest to those who profess an interest in " tenant
right," and such like matters, to take up the reports of Nimmo
and Killally, written nearly fifty years ago, at the instance of
Kichard and Thomas Martin, of Ballinahinch, and with these,
and the Reports of the Commissioners, and the leading articles
upon the subject, in the days of O'Connell, in their hands, to
make an examination of the present condition of this vast pro-
perty, when, perhaps, they may find, that — although it was
bought exceedingly cheap, at a time when Irish property was
pressed into the market at a third less than its value — no
portion of Ireland of the same extent has made less progress
than the Ballinahinch estates during the last twenty years.
Passing over the esker by the chapel, we obtain a view
of an extensive limestone ridge that slopes to the lake, grey,
bare, and almost verdureless, except where the stunted nut
* See Sir Bernard Burke's " Princess of Connamara," in his " Vicis-
situdes of Families," page 65.
THE YEW FOREST.
299
trees rise out of clefts in the rocks ; but which, there is every
reason to believe, was once covered with a portion of the great
yew forest already alluded to at page 287, and from which the
not far distant Castle of Aughnanure, "the field of the yews,"
derived its name. The
neighbouring townland of
Kylemore, "the great
wood," naturally calls at-
tention to the spot ; but
we have something more
than topographical nomen-
clature or tradition to guide
us in searching for the re-
mains of this ancient fo-
rest ; for around us may
still be seen the withered
stumps or roots of no less
than twelve of the ancient
yews of Gnomore and Gno-
beg; — and two of these,
about half a mile to the
north of the chapel, claim special attention. Passing down the
road towards Lough Corrib, through this barren, grey-coloured
rocky region, without a house, or beast, or living thing to claim
attention, the eye falls on a lone, grey, tall, spectre-like object,
standing in the midst of a large field of limestone ; and on ap-
proaching it we find it to be the bare knobby stump of an
300 THE YEW FOREST.
ancient yew tree, here figured from a drawing by Mr. Kina-
han, to whom we are indebted for having first directed our
attention to this most interesting vestige of the oldest forest
in Ireland now over ground. It is 10 feet high, and 9 feet
9 inches in girth ; and its snake-like roots spreading far and
wide on all sides, crawl into the smallest crevices of the crags,
where,
" Moor'd in the rifted rock,
Proof to the tempest's shock,"
it broadly grew, and gaily bourgeoned, when the world was
many centuries younger than it is now. Standing with our
back to the mountains, and viewing this lone withered tree
upon that inhospitable tract, a scene of greater desolation can
scarcely be imagined. Hundreds of years must have elapsed
since this sylvan monarch spread its green arms abroad ; and,
although not absolutely fossilized, it is at present so hard that
it is almost impossible to make an impression upon it with an
edged tool, and it is with great difficulty that any portion of
it can be hammered off. The outer surface of the lower por-
tion of this tree is covered with sharp, prickly projections,
apparently the remains of a late superficial vegetation, after the
top had withered, and which contrasts forcibly with the beau-
tiful smooth honest bark that has so long rendered the Irish
Palm an object of sacred interest, and caused it to be used
in the manufacture of our ancient croziers, shrines, and relics.
The yew is not only one of the most beautiful, but longest-
lived, of the indigenous trees of Ireland ; and, as in life, so in
THE IRISH PALM. 301
death, it aims at immortality — shading with its wide-spread-
ing green arms the grave of the young and innocent in the
lone churchyard ; — raising its tall stem in the centre of the an-
cient cloister ; commemorating (owing to the similarity of its
pinnate leaves with those of the Oriental palm) the day when
Jerusalem's walls beheld the procession from the Mount of
Olives ; for all which, and for the reasons already specified,
the Irish yew possesses special attractions for our people.* A
specimen of about the same size, but hollow near the bottom,
stands in the adjacent mearing wall to the west of this field ;
and the remnants of ten others lie scattered throughout the
townlands of Corraneilstrum and Kylemoie — while, no doubt,
others may yet be discovered.
Continuing our route along this lower road by the north
and east of Lough Lonan, we re-enter MoYCULLEN parish; and,
obtaining a view of the picturesque wooded island, upon which
some remains may still be observed of Ohery, the old castle
* Upon the age to which the yew will grow under favourable circum-
stances it is almost impossible to speculate. The great yew tree still living
at Clontarf is believed to be as old as the battle fought there in 1013.
Hundreds of massive trunks of yews lie buried beneath our bogs ; and the
late James Mackay, Curator of the Botanic Garden, T. C. D., at the Meet-
ing of the British Association held in Dublin, in 1835, produced a section
of one, from the concentric rings of which he showed that it must have
lived at least a thousand years. — See also the author's description of the
Dragon Tree of Oratava, and other aged trees, in his li Narrative of a
Voyage to Madeira and Teneriffe," &c, 2nd Edition, p. 109.
?){)*2 MOYCULLEN PARISH.
of the O'Hallorans, who were driven out in 1587, we ajjain
7 ' o
reach the main road to Galway, near Deerfield, at present oc-
cupied by the Rev. Francis Kenny, the Parish Priest of Moy-
cullen. Thence, with Drimcong and Loughs Hemusmaconry,
Arrobaun, Pollahy, and Down, on our left, we proceed through
the shaded road of Danesfield, the beautifully-situated residence
of George Burke, Esq. ; and so on to the little village of Moy-
cullen, which, together with a large district of the adjacent
country, originally part of the Barna estate, is now the pro-
perty of Lord Campbell.
At this celebrated locality, Magh- Uillin, the plain on which
was slain the warrior Uillin, as already described at page 20,
from whence has been derived the name of this extensive ba-
rony and parish — and which, besides its ancient history, is
memorable for having been the residence of Roderick O'Fla-
herty, the historian of " West Connaught," and in later times
as the scene of Lady Morgan's clever novel of " The O'Briens
and O'Flahertys" — we must rest, and make a few detours to
the right and left of the village. The cross roads here lead,
on the south, to Spiddle, and, on the north, to the ferry of
Knock, already described at page 85. Passing up the former,
tw T o objects of note claim our attention : the first of these,
nearly due south of Moycullen, and about a mile east of this
road, upon the hill of Killagoola, is the ruin of Team pull- Eany,
the " church of St. Eany," which is 24 feet long by 12 broad,
having a remarkable projecting stone at the south-west angle,
CHURCHES IN MOYCULLEN PARISH. 303
like that referred to at Inchangoill, and in the church of Clo-
niff; there are some remains of a chancel arch, and the doorway
was in the western gable. About 30 yards to the west of
this church is a double bidlaun, cut in a rock, and called the
kneeling stone, or Gluine Phadrig, " St. Patrick's knees," from
a belief that our early missionary prayed here, and left these
impressions upon the stone. It is held in great veneration, and
stations are still performed there ; and, as these bason-like in-
dentations are believed never to be devoid of water, it is con-
sidered an infallible cure for sore eyes. There is also here a
holy well, walled, and draped with ivy, which is also held in
veneration. Still further to the south, at Pollnaclogha, about
three miles from Moycullen, there are some rocks worthy of ex-
amination, as it is supposed that there are characters engraved
upon them ; but these, it is possible, may be only veins of
quartz. There are also traditions attached to this locality worthy
of investigation.
Upon the northern " cast," between the main road and the
lake, as we proceed downwards towards Tullokian, figured and
described at page 62, and Knock Ferry, by the west of Ballin-
quirk Lake, we have the little church of Moycullen upon our
right, of which the side walls and gable still remain ; but,
except the pointed-arched doorway on the northern side, and
one small narrow light in the eastern gable, it possesses no
features of either antiquarian or architectural interest. Of this
parochial church says O'Flaherty, in 1684, "its chief feast of
304 THE BATTLE STONE OF MAGH-UILLIN.
late is the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Lady, on
the 8th of December, as patroness. What ancient patron it
had is unknown."
" Here Uillinn, grandchild of Nuad Silverhand, King of
Ireland, 1200 years before Christ's birth, overthrew in battle,
and had the killing of, Orbsen Mac Alloid, commonly called
Mananan Mac Lir, Mananan the Mankish man, Mac Lir, son
of the sea, for his skill in seafaring. From Ullin, Moycullen is
named ; to wit, Magh-Ullin, the field of Ullin ; and from Orb-
sen, Lough Orbsen, or the Lake of Orbsen. Six miles from
a great stone in that field (erected perhaps in memory of the
same battle) to the town of Galway."* Continuing our route
towards Bally dotia, " the burned village," we enter the town-
land of Leagaun ; and in a furze field to our right, not far from
the old road between Oughterard and Galway, from which lat-
ter this spot is about " six miles" distant, may still be seen
what there is every reason to believe is the stone that marks
* "West Connaught," p. 55. —See also OTlaherty's " Ogygia." In
Cormac's very ancient Glossary we read thus of the navigator " Manann-an
Mac Lir, a famous merchant, who was in the Isle of Mann. He was the
best navigator in the west of the world. He used to discover by obser-
vation of the heavens when there would be good or bad weather, and when
either would change by the moon. Hence the Scoti and Britons used to
call him the God of the Sea, and they said that he was the son of the sea.
From him the Isle ofManann is named." — See O'Donovan's translation in
the " Ordnance Letters from Galway, 1839," vol. iii., p. 159 — See also an
article on the subject of Mananan Mac Lir, by Mr. Brash, in the " Archa?o-
logia Cambrensis" for April, I860.
CLOONIFF CHURCH. 305
the precise locality where Orbsen M'Alloid was slain by Uillin ;
although Hardiman, in his notes to the " Iar-Connaught," stated
that it had not been identified, and that "no person in the
district ever heard of such a monument." This large limestone
flag, which was prostrated by the storm of 1839, and which
measures 12 1 . - by 1\ wide, and is 13 inches thick,
is undoubtedly that reared to by O'Flaherty. It is called
Clougli-more Legaun, " the great stone of Legaun," by the pea-
santry, who regard it as a " Fairy monument," under which
the warriors of the olden time were buried. The vast and
beautiful view commanded from this spot is, perhaps, the finest
prospect of the flat country eastward of Lough Orbsen, com-
prising the distant hills of Clare, a large extent of the lake
and the district from Clare-Galway to Knockma — while to the
west, the mountain scenery possesses an unusual diversity of
outline.
Skirting the northern and eastern margins of Ballyquirk
Lake,* which is to the left of the Galway road, and passing
by Patrick's Well, we alight upon the ruins of Teampull-beg,
the " little church," in the townland of Clooniff, which is
the last ruin that claims our attention. It partakes of the
early daimlaig form — is 24 feet long by 12^ broad, and has a
small chancel at the western end. The walls are now about
* A canal carries off the surplus waters of Ballyquirk, and the small
lakes to the west of it ; but those of Ross Lake filter under ground, and
do not, as stated at page 24, pass through that Canal.
X
306 RAHOON PARISH. — CONCLUSION.
12 feet high, and at the south-western angle a long stone pro-
jects from the gable, like those at Inchangoill and Teampull
Eany. A little distance to the north of it there is a bullawn
stone, also called Gluine Phadrig.
Once more getting upon the main road, we proceed through
the parish of Rahoon to Gal way, and here we make our bow,
and take our leave. Our task is done. We have endeavoured
to direct the attention of the reader and the tourist to all that
is historic, picturesque, and beautiful in this grand Lough Cor-
rib region, with its sacred islands, its ancient battle grounds,
raths, and tumuli ; its splendid ruins of castle and abbey, con-
trasted with the results of modern civilization ; its magnificent
scenery of mountain and lake, with the ever-changing lights
on the purple hills, and the glorious sunsets peculiar to the
West — scenes so full of interest for the antiquary, the his-
torian, the poet and the painter, the politician and social eco-
nomist — for all who love nature and truth, and like to study
national life through its various phases. We have also tried to
direct attention to those vast sources of wealth which still lie
unutilized in the West; and if, while interesting the tourist,
we have also stimulated the work of national progress, the
chief objects shall have been accomplished for which this
book was undertaken— to illustrate the past, and to benefit
the present.
THE END.
DATE DUE
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